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'i- 



MR. PRESCOTT'S HISTORICAL WORKS, 

PUBLISHED BY 

Messrs. Harper & Brothers, New York. 



With Portraits, Maps, 4-c. 2 vols. 8vo, Sheep extra, M 50 ; Muslin, $4 00. 

HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF PERU; 

eSb'ftl) a IJrelfmmars Ufeto o£ t|)e ©fbilfjation of tjje Jtncas. 



It is the highest praise of Mr. Prescott that, by his skill- 
ful trealineiit, by the unfailing life of his narrative, and by 
his happy arrangement and disposition of incidents, he has 
thrown an interest hardly less exciting over Peru than over 
the fall of Mexico. We can most conscientiously recom- 
mend to our readers this present work as indispensable to 
3oinplele that long line of English histories which is grad- 
ually appropriating to itself the most important events in 
the chronicles of mankind. — Quarterly Review, Oct., 1847. 

He now occupies a place on the highest seat in the tem- 
ple of literary fame which is reached liy the living. The 
" Conquest of Peru" is one of tlje most romantic episodes in 
the history of the world. Like the '' Conquest of Mexico," 
it opened to the eyes of Europeans a world of gtrange and 
peculiar beauty. The stories of the country's splendor, its 
arts, manners, and institutions, seemed more like Arcadian 
or Utopian dreams than narrations of fact. — Knickerbocker. 

The world's history contains no chapter more striking and 
attractive than that comprising the narrative of Spanish con- 
ques: in the Americas. Teeming with interest to the histo- 
rian and philosopher, to the loverof daring enterprise and 
marvelous adventure, it is full of fascination. A clear head 



and a sound judgment, great industry and a skillful pen, ars 
needed to do justice to the subject. These necessary qual- 
ities have been found united in the person of an accomplish- 
ed American author. Already favorably known by his his- 
tories of the eventful and chivalrous reign of Ferdinand and 
Isabella, and of the exploits of the Great Marquis and his 
iron followers, Mr. Prescott has added to his well-merited 
reputation by his narrative of the Conquest of Peru. — 
Blackwood. 

The " Conquest of Peru" may lake a foremost place 
among the histories of the present day, and will not shrink 
from a comparison with many in past ages. — London Spec- 
tator. 

This work is so alluring in its subject, so pleasing m its 
execution, and so moderate in its extent, as would never fa- 
tigue the attention, or make any undue demands on time. 
Mr. Prescott is one of the very few American writers who 
hav« taken a high and permanent station in English litera- 
ture. He always shows a sufficient acquaintance with his 
subject ; commands respect by the temperance of his judg- 
ment ; and pleases by the elegance of his language and the 
beauty of his style. — Gentleman's Magazine. 



With Portrait and Maps. 3 vols. 8vo, Sheep extra, $6 75 ; Muslin, S6 00. 

HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO, 

mSSl^t t\)e 3Ute of tlje ffionquetor, JH^crnantio ffiortcj, anli a Ufeto of tjje ^ncfent iWejrfcan 

€:fbil»ation. 



This work we think even more secure of universal popu- 
larity than the "History of Ferdinand and Isabella." It 
abounds with sketches of scenery worthy of Scott, with 
battle-pieces rivaling those of Napier, with pictures of dis- 
aster and desolation scarcely less pathetic than those drawn 
by Thucydides. Mr. Prescott appears to us to possess al- 
most every qualification for his task. He has a pure, sim- 
ple, and eloquent style ; a keen relish for the picturesque ; 
a quick and discerning judgment of character ; and a calm, 
generous, and enlightened spirit of philanthropy. — Edin- 
burgh Review. 

The more closely we examine Mr. Prescott's work, the 
more do we find cause to commend his diligent research. 



His vivacity of manner and discursive observations, scatter- 
ed through notes as well as text, furnish countless proofs of 
his matchless industry. In point of style, too, he ranks with 
the ablest English historians ; and paragraphs may he found 
in his volumes. In which the grace and eloquence of Addi- 
son are combined with Robertson's majestic cadence and 
Gibbon's brilliancy. — Athena:um. 

One of the most remarkable historical compositions that 
has appeared for a long time. — Bibliothegue Universelle da 
Geneve. 

His narrative is flowing and spirited, sometimes very pic- 
turesque ; above all, his judgments are unaffectedly candid 
and impartial. — Quarterly Review 



With Portraits. 3 vols. 8vo, Sheep extra, $6 75 ; Muslin, $6 00. 

HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA, 

STjie ffiatJoUc. 



Hi« laborious industry, conjoined with native ability, 
places the author next to Hallani, among our living histori- 
ans, for the largeness and philosophical justness of his esti- 
mate, the distinctness and comprehension of his general 
surveys, and the interesting fullness of his narrative. — 
London Spectator. 

While the English language shall be used, we venture to 
Bay Prescott's " History of Ferdinand and Isabella" will be 
read. — Biblical Repository. 

Mr. Prescott's merit chiefly consists in the skillful ar- 
rangement of his materials, in the spirit of philosophy which 
Bniiiiates the work, and in a clear and elegant style that 



charms and interests the reader. His book is one of the 
most succe.ssful historical productions of our time. — Edin- 
burgh Review. 

Mr. Prescott's work is a valuable accession to the common 
literature of England and the United States. It is by much 
the first historical work which America has as yet pro 
duced, and one that need hardly fear a comparison witn 
any that has issued from the European press since this cen- 
tury began. — Quarterly Review. 

Written in a spirit and style worthy of Xenophon, and 
may rank among the first histories in the English language 
— Gentleman's Magazine. 



With a finely-engraved Portrait. 8vo, Muslin. $2 00. 

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL MISCELLANIES. 



Thit elegant volume will be received with an eager and 
universal welcome. The contents comprise a series of lit- 
erary essays, written in Mr. Prescott's peculiarly graceful 
and pleasing style, upon subjects of deep and permanent in- 
terest. — Commercial Advertiser. 

This volume of '• Miscellanies" bears witness to the en- 
cyclopediac variety of the author's talents. By turns, he 
devotes his critical pen to foreign and to national writers — 
to historians, poets, dramatists, and romancers, impartial to 
all, with a benevolent and courteous impartiality, according 
to the claims of each. — M. PichAt. 

Mr. Prescott is an elegant writer, and there ii nothing 
.hat comes from hi> pen that does not strongly bear the 



marks of originality. The present volume contains a se- 
ries of papers on different subjects ; biography, belles-let- 
tres, criticism, &c., in which Mr. Prescott has put forward 
some beautiful ideas on the attributes of mind, the forma- 
libn of character, and the present condition of various sec- 
tions of society. It will be read with avidity by the scholar 
and general inquirer. — New Orleans Bulletin. 

The essays embrace a variety of literary subject", and 
treat of American, Soanish, French, Italian, and English 
authors. All who lo» a liglit and pleasant style of obser- 
vation thrown over to ica of universal interest will find 
enough h«re to afford l1j m acceptable information and ra- 
tional pastime.— i,!(erarj Gazettt. 



OF THE REVOLUTION. 



81 



Humiliating Review of the British Prisoners. Burgoyne's Surrender of his Sword. The Spoils of Victory. Yankee Doodle. 




Site of the first interview between Gates and Burgoyne.^ 



been through any fault of your excellency." The other officers were introduced in turn, and 

the whole party repaired 
to Gates's headquarters, 
where a sumptuous dinner 
was served.' 

After dinner the Ameri- 
can army was drawn up in 
parallel lines on each side 
of the road, extending near- 
ly a mile. Between these 
victorious troops the Brit- 
ish army, with light infan- 
try in front, and escorted 
by a company of light 
dragoons, preceded by two 
mounted officers bearing 
the American flag, marched to the lively tune of Yankee Doodle.^ Just as they passed, the 
two commanding generals, who were in Gates's marquee, came out together, and, fronting 
the procession, gazed upon it in silence a few moments. What a contrast, in every partic 
ular, did the two present ! Burgoyne, though possessed of coarse features, had a large and 
commanding person ; Gates was smaller and far less dignified in appearance. Burgoyne 
was arrayed in the splendid military trappings of his rank ; Gates was clad in a plain and 
unassuming dress. Burgoyne was the victim of disappointed hopes and foiled ambition, and 
looked upon the scene with exceeding sorrow ; Gates was buoyant with the first flush of a 
great victory. Without exchanging a word, Burgoyne, according to previous understand- 
ing, stepped back, drew his sword, and, in the presence of the two armies, presented it to 
General Gates. He received it with a courteous inclination of the head, and instantly re- 
turned it to the vanquished general. They then retired to the marquee together, the Brit- 
ish army filed ofi' and took up their line of march for Boston, and thus ended the drama 
upon the heights of Saratoga. 

The whole number of prisoners surrendered was five thousand seven hundred and ninety- 
one, of whom two thousand four hundred and twelve were Germans and Hessians. The 
force of the Americans, at the time of the surrender, was, according to a statement which 
General Gates furnished to Burgoyne, thirteen thousand two hundred and twenty-two, of 
which number nine thousand and ninety-three were Continentals, or regular soldiers, and 
four thousand one hundred and twenty-nine were militia. The arms and ammunition which 
came into the possession of the Americans were, a fine train of brass artillery, consistino^ of 
2 twenty-four pounders, 4 twelve pounders, 20 sixes, 6 threes, 2 eight inch howitzers, 5 five 
and a half inch royal howitzers, and 3 five and a half inch royal mortars ;■* in all forty-two 



' See Wilkinson. 

' This view is taken from the turnpike, looking south. The old road was where the canal now is, and 
(he place of meeting was about at the point where the bridge is seen. 

•* Thatcher, in his Military Journal (p. 19), gives the following accovmt of the origin of the word Yan- 
kee and of Yankee Boodle : '" A farmer of Cambridge, Massachusetts, named Jonathan Hastings, who lived 
about the year 1713, used it as a favorite cant word to express excellence, as a yankee good horse or yan- 
kee good cider. The students of the college, hearing him use it a great deal, adopted it, and called him 
Yankee Jonathan ; and as he was a rather weak man, the students, when they wished to denote a charac- 
ter of that kind, would call him Yankee Jonathan. Like other cant words, it .spread, and came finally to 
be applied to the New Englanders as a term of reproach. Some suppose the term to be the Indian cor- 
ruption of the word English — Yenglees, Yangles, Yankles, and finally Yankee. 

"A song, called Yankee Boodle, was written by a British sergeant at Boston, in 1775, to ridicule the 
people there, when the American army, under Washington, was encamped at Cambridge and Roxbury." 
The original song will be found in another part of this work. 

■» Two of these, drawings of which will be found in this work, are now in the court of the laboratory 
of the West Point Military Academy, on the Hudson. 



82 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 

The Germans and Hessians. Their Arrival at Cambridge and wretched Appearance. Kindness of the People. 

pieces of ordnance. There were four thousand sbc hundred and forty-seven muskets, and 
six thousand dozens of cartridges, besides shot, carcasses, cases, shells, &c. Among the En- 
glish prisoners were six members of Parliament.' 

Cotemporary writers represent the appearance of the poor German and Hessian troops as 
extremely miserable and ludicrous. They deserved commiseration, but they received none. 
They came not here voluntarily to fight our people ; they were sent as slaves by their mas- 
ters, vv^o received the price of their hire. They were caught, it is said, while congregated 
in their churches and elsewhere, and forced into the service. Most of them were torn re- 
luctantly from their families and friends ; hundreds of them deserted here before the close 
of the war ; and many of their descendants are now living among us. Many had their 
wives with them, and these helped to make up the pitiable procession through the country. 
Their advent into Cambridge, near Boston, is thus noticed by the lady of Dr. Winthrop of 
that town, in a letter to Mrs. Mercy Warren, an early historian of our Revolution : "On 
Friday we heard the Hessians were to make a procession on the same route. We thought 
we should have nothing to do but view them as they passed. To be sure, the sight was 
truly astonishing. I never had the least idea that the creation produced such a sordid set 
of creatures in human figure — poor, dirty, emaciated men. Great numbers of women, who 
seemed to be the beasts of burden, having bushel baskets on their backs, by which they were 
bent double. The contents seemed to be pots and kettles, various sorts of furniture, children 
peeping through gridirons and other utensils. Some very young infants, who were born on 
the road ; the women barefooted, clothed in dirty rags. Such effluvia filled the air while 
they were passing, that, had they not been smoking all the time, I should have been appre- 
hensive of being contaminated."' 

The whole view of the vanquished army, as it marched through the country from Saratoga 
to Boston, a distance of three hundred miles, escorted by two or three American officers and 
a handful of soldiers, was a spectacle of extraordinary interest. Generals of the first order 
of talent ; young gentlemen of noble and wealthy families, aspiring to military renown ; legis- 
lators of the British realm, and a va.st concourse of other men, lately confident of victory and 
of freedom to plunder and destroy, were led captive through the pleasant land they had covet- 
ed, to be gazed at with mingled joy and scorn by those whose homes they came to make des- 
olate. " Their march was solemn, sullen, and silent ; but they were every where treated 
with such humanity, and even delicacy, that they were overwhelmed with astonishment and 
gratitude. Not one insult was ofl^ered, not an opprobrious reflection cast ;"' and in all their 
long captivity'' they experienced the generous kindness of a people warring only to be free. 

1 Gordon, ii., 267. 

" Women of the Revolution, i., 97. 

•' Mercy Warren, ii., 40. 

'' Allhouirh Congress ratified the generous terms entered into by Gates with Burgoyne in the convention 
at Saratoga, circumstances made them suspicious that the terms would not be strictly complied with. 
Tftey feared that the Britons would break their parole, and Burgoyne was required to furnish a complete 
roll of his army, the name and rank of every officer, and the name, former place of abode, occupation, age, 
and size of every non-commissioned officer and private soldier. Burgoyne murmured and hesitated. Gen- 
eral Howe, at the same time, was very illiberal in the exchange of prisoners, and exhibited considerable 
duplicity. Congress became alarmed, and resolved not to allow the army of Burgoyne to leave our shores 
until a formal ratification of the convention should be made by the British government. Burgoyne alone 
was allowed to go home on parole, and the other officers, with the army, were marched into the interior 
of Virginia, to await the future action of the two governments. The British ministry charged Congress 
with positive perfidy, and Congress justified their acts by charging the ministers with meditated perfidy. 
That this suspicion was well founded is proved by subsequent events. In the autumn of 1778, Isaac Og- 
den, a prominent loyalist of New Jersey, and then a refugee in New York, thus wrote to Joseph Galloway, 
an American Tory in London, respecting an expedition of four thousand British troops which Sir Henry 
Clinton sent up the Hudson a week previous : " Another object of this expedition was to open the country 
for many of Burgoyne's troops that had escaped the vigilance of their guard, to come in. About forty of 
these have got safe in. If this expedition had been a week sooner, greater part of Burgoyne's troops prob- 
ably would have arrived here, as a disposition of rising on their guard strongly prevailed, and all they 
wanted to effect it was some support near at hand." 



OF THE REVOLUTION. 



Relative Condition and Prospect of the Americans before the Capture of Burgoyne. 



Effect of that Event 



The surrender of Burgoyne was an event of infinite importance to the strugghng republic- 
ans. Hitherto the preponderance of success had been on the side of the Enghsh, and only 
a few partial victories had been won by the Americans. The defeat on Long Island had 
eclipsed the glory of the siege of Boston ; the capture of Fort Washington and its garrison 
had overmatched the brilliant defense of Charleston ; the defeat at Brandywine had balanced 
the victory at Trenton ; White Plains and Princeton were in fair juxtaposition in the ac- 
count current ; and at the very time when the hostile armies at the north were fighting for 
the mastery, Washington was suffering defeats in Pennsylvania, and Forts Clinton, Mont- 
gomery, and Constitution were passing into the hands of the royal forces. Congress had 
fled from Philadelphia to York, and its sittings were in the midst of loyalists, ready to at- 
tack or betray. Its treasury was nearly exhausted ; its credit utterly so. Its bills to the 
amount of forty millions of dollars were scattered over the country. Its frequent issues were 
inadequate to the demands of the commissariat, and distrust was rapidly depreciating their 
value in the public mind. Loyalists rejoiced ; the middlemen were in a dilemma ; the 
patriots trembled. Thick clouds of doubt and dismay were gathering in every part of the 
political horizon, and the acclamations which had followed the Declaration of Independence, 
the year before, died away like mere whispers upon the wind. 

All eyes were turned anxiously to the army of the north, and upon that strong arm of 
Congress, wielded, for the time, by Gates, the hopes of the patriots leaned. How eagerly 
they listened to every breath of rumor from Saratoga I How enraptured were they when the 
cry of victory fell upon their ears I All over the land a shout of triumph went up, and 
from the furrows, and workshops, and marts of commerce ; from the pulpit, from provincial 
halls of legislation, from partisan camps, and from the shattered ranks of the chief at White 
Marsh, it was echoed and re-echoed. Toryism, which had begun to lift high its head, re- 
treated behind the defense of inaction ; the bills of Congress rose twenty per cent, in value ; 
capital came forth from its hiding-places ; the militia readily obeyed the summons to the 
camp, and the great patriot heart of America beat strongly with pulsations of hope. Amid 
the joy of the moment, Gates was apotheosized in the hearts of his countrymen, and they 




Medal stbuck in honob of General Gates and his armv. 



' The engraving exhibits a view of both sides of the medal, drawn the size of the original. On one 
side is a bust of General Gates, with the Latin inscription, " Horatio Gates Duci Strenuo Comitia 
Americana;" literal English, Horatio Gates, brave leader of the American forces. On the other side, or 
reverse, Burgoyne is represented in the attitude of delivering up his sword ; and in the backeround. on 
either side of them, are seen the two armies of England and America, the former laying down their arms. 
At the top is the Latin inscription, " Salus regionum Septentrional ;" literal English, Safety of the 
northern region or department. Below is the inscription, " Hoste ad Saratogum in dedition, accepto 
DIE xvn. Oct., mdcclxxvii. ;" English, Enemy at Saratoga surrendered October llth, 1777. 



8'4 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 

Wilkinson before Congress. Gold Medal awarded to Gates. Proceedings of the British Parliament. Speech of Chatham. 

generously overlooked the indignity offered by him to the commander-in-chief when he re- 
fused, in the haughty pride of his heart in that hour of victory, to report, as in duty bound, 
his success to the national council through him. Congress, too, overjoyed at the result, for- 
got its own dignity, and allowed Colonel Wilkinson,' the messenger of the glad tidings, to 
stand upon their floor and proclaim, " The whole British army have laid down their arms 
at Saratoga ; our own, full of vigor and courage, expect your orders ; it is for your wisdom 
to decide where the country may still have need of their services." Congi-ess voted thanks 
to General Gates and his army, and decreed that he should be presented with a medal of 
gold, to be struck expressly in commemoration of so glorious a victory. 

This victory was also of infinite importance to the republicans on account of its effects 
beyond the Atlantic. The highest hopes of the British nation, and the most sanguine ex- 
pectations of the king and his ministers, rested on the success of this campaign. It had 
been a favorite object with the administration, and the people were confidently assured that, 
with the undoubted success of Burgoyne, the turbulent spirit of rebellion would be quelled, 
and the insurgents would be forced to return to their allegiance. 

Parliament was in session when the intelligence of Burgoyne's defeat reached England ; 
Decembers, ^.nd whcn the moumful tidings were communicated to that body, it instantly 

^'^^- aroused all the fire of opposing parties." The opposition opened anew their elo- 
quent batteries upon the ministers. For several days misfortune had been suspected. The 
last arrival from America brought tidings of gloom. The Earl of Chatham, with far-reach- 
ing comprehension, and thorough knowledge of American affairs, had denounced the mode of 
warfare and the material used against the Americans. He refused to vote for the lauda- 
tory address to the king. Leaning upon his crutch, he poured forth his vigorous denuncia- 
tions against the course of the ministers like a mountain torrent. " This, my lords," he 
said, " is a perilous and tremendous moment I It is no time for adulation. The smooth- 
ness of flattery can not now avail — can not save us in this rugged and awful crisis. It is 

now necessary to instruct the throne in the language of truth You can not, 

I venture to say it, you can not conquer America. What is your present situation there ? 
We do not know the worst, but we know that in three campaigns we have suffered much 
and gained nothing, and perhaps at this moment the northern army (Burgoyne's) may be a 
total loss You may swell every expense, and every effort, still more extrava- 
gantly ; pile and accumulate every assistance you can buy or borrow ; traffic and barter 
with every little pitiful German prince that sells and sends his subjects to the shambles of 
a foreign power ; your efforts are forever vain and impotent ; doubly so from this mercenary 
aid on which you rely, for it irritates to an incurable resentment the minds of your enemies. 
To overrun with the mercenary sons of rapine and plunder, devoting them and their posses- 
sions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty I If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, 
while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms — never, 
never, never 1"^ 

The Earl of Coventry, Earl Temple Chatham's brother-in-law, and the Duke of Rich- 
mond, all spoke in coincidence with Chatham. Lord Suffolk, one of the Secretaries of State, 
undertook the defense of ministers for the employment of Indians, and concluded by saying, 
"It is perfectly justifiable to use all the means that God and nature have put into our 
hands." This sentiment brought Chatham upon the floor. " That God and nature put 



' James Wilkinson was born in Maryland about 1757, and, by education, was prepared for the practice 
of medicine. He repaired to Cambridfre as a volunteer in 1775. He was captain of a company in a regi- 
ment that went to Canada in 1776. He was appointed deputy adjutant general by Gates, and, after the 
surrender of Burgoyne, Congress made him a brigadier general by brevet. At the conclusion of the war 
he settled in Kentucky, but entered the army in 1806, and had the command on the Mississippi. He com- 
manded on the northern frontier during our last war with Great Britain. At the age of 56 he married a 
young lady of 26. He died of diarrhea, in Mexico, December 28th, 1825, aged 68 years. 

' Pitkin, i., 399. 

^ Parliamentary Debates. 



OF THE REVOLUTION. 



8 5 



The Opposition in the House of Commons. Policy of Lord North. Exalted Position of the American Commissioners at Paris. 

into our hands I" he reiterated, with bitter scorn. " I know not what idea that lord may 
entertain of God and nature, but I know that such abominable principles are equally abhor- 
rent to rqligion and humanity. What ! attribute the sacred sanction of God and nature to 
the massacres of the Indian scalping-knife, to the cannibal and savage, torturing, murdering, 
roasting, and eating — literally, my lords, eating — the mangled victims of his barbarous bat- 
tles These abominable principles, and this most abominable avowal of them, 

demand most decisive indignation. I call upon that right reverend bench (pointing to the 
bishops), those holy ministers of the Gospel and pious pastors of the Church — I conjure 
them to join in the holy work, and to vindicate the religion of their God." 

In the Lower House, Burke, Fox, and Barre were equally severe upon the ministers ; 
and on the 3d of December, when the news of Burgoyne's defeat reached London, the lat- 
ter arose in his place in the Commons, and, with a severe and solemn countenance, asked 
Lord George Germain, the Secretary of War, what news he had received by his last ex- 
presses from Quebec, and to say, upon his word of honor, what had become of Burgoyne 
and his brave army. The haughty secretary was irritated by the cool irony of the ques- 
tion, but he was obliged to unbend and to confess that the unhappy intelligence had reached 
him, but added it was not yet authenticated.' 

Lord North, the premier, with his usual adroitness, admitted that misfortune had befallen the 



1778. 



British arms, but denied that 
any blame could be imputed 
to ministers themselves, and 
proposed an adjournment of 
December, Parliament on the 
1^^^- ' 11th (which was 
carried) until the 20 th of 
January.^ It was a 
clever trick of the 
premier to escape the cas- 
tigations which he knew 
the opposition would iiiflict 
while the nation was smart- 
ing under the goadings of 
mortified pride. 

The victory over Bur- 
goyne, unassisted as our 





€P 



'/<? 




troops were by foreign aid, 
placed the prowess of the 
United States in the most 
favorable light upon the 
Continent. Our urgent so- 
licitations for aid, hitherto 
but little noticed except by 
France, were now listened 
to with respect, and the 
American commissioners at 
Paris, Dr. Franklin, Silas 
Deane,^ and Arthur Lee,* 
occupied a commanding po- 
sition among the diploma- 
tists of Europe. France, 
Spain, the States Gen- 
eral of Holland, the 



Prince of Orange, and even Catharine of Russia and Pope Clement XIV. (Ganganelli), all 



' History of the Reign of George III., i., 326. 

2 Pitkin, i., 397. Annual Register, 1778, p. 74. 

^ Silas Deane was a native of Groton, Connecticut. He graduated at Yale College, 1758, and was a 
member of the first Congress, 1774. He was sent to France in June, 1776, as political and commercial 
agent for the United Colonies, and in the autumn of that year was associated with Franklin and Lee as 
commissioner. He seems to have been unfit, in a great degree, for the station he held, and his defective 
judgment and extravagant promises greatly embarrassed Congress. He was recalled at the close of 1777, 
and John Adams appointed in his place. He published a defense of his character in 1778, and charged 
Thomas Paine and others connected with public affairs with using their oificial influence for purposes of 
private gain. This was the charge made against himself, and he never fully wiped out all suspicion. He 
went to England toward the close of 1784, and died in extreme poverty at Deal, 1789. 

■* Dr. Lee was born in Virginia in 1740 — a brother to the celebrated Richard Henry Lee. He was edu- 
cated at Edinburgh, and, on returning to America, practiced medicine at Williamsburgh about five years. 
He went to London in 1766, and studied law in the Temple. He kept his brother and other patriots of 
the Revolution fully informed of all political matters of importance abroad, and particularly the movements 
of the British ministry. He wrote a great deal, and stood high as an essayist and political pamphleteer. 
He was colonial agent for Virginia in 1775. In 1776 he was associated with Franklin and Deane, as min- 
ister at the court of Versailles. He and John Adams were recalled in 1779. On returning to the United 
States, he was appointed to offices of trust. He died of pleurisy, December 14th, 1782, aged nearly 42. 



86 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 

Our relative Position to the Governments of Europe. Policy of Vergennes. Beaumarchais's Commercial Operations. 

of whom feared and hated England because of her increasing potency in arms, commerce, 
diplomacy, and the Protestant faith, thought kindly of us and spuke kindly to us. We 
were loved because England was hated ; we were respected because we could injure En- 
gland by dividing her realm and impairing her growing strength beyond the seas. There 
was a perfect reciprocity of service ; and when peace was ordained by treaty, and our inde- 
pendence was established, the balance-sheet showed nothing against us, so far as the govern- 
ments of continental Europe were concerned. 

In the autumn of 1776, Franklin and Lee were appointed, jointly with Deane, 
resident commissioners at the court of Versailles, to negotiate a treaty of amity 
and commerce with the French king. They opened negotiations early in December with 
the Count De Vergennes, the premier of Louis XVI. He was distinguished for sound wis- 
dom, extensive political knowledge, remarkable sagacity, and true greatness of mind. He 
foresaw that generous dealings with the insurgent colonists at the outset would be the surest 
means of perpetuating the rebellion until a total separation from the parent state would be 
accomplished — an event eagerly coveted by the French government. France hated En- 
gland cordially, and feared her power. She had no special love for the Anglo-American 
colonies, but she was ready to aid them in reducing, by disunion, the puissance of the Brit- 
ish empire. To widen the breach was the chief aim of Vergennes. A haughty reserve, 
he knew, would discourage the Americans, while an open reception, or even countenance, 
of their deputies might alarm the rulers of Great Britain, and dispose them to a compromise 
with the colonies, or bring on an immediate rupture between France and England. A 
middle line was, therefore, pursued by him.' 

While the French government was thus vacillating during the first three quarters of 
1777, secret aid was given to the republicans, and great quantities of arms and ammunition 
were sent to this country, by an agent of the French government, toward the close of the 
year, ostensibly through the channel of commercial operations.'^ But when the capture of 

' Ramsay, ii., 62, 63. 

^ In the summer of 1776, Arthur Lee, agent of the Secret Committee of Congress, made an arrange- 
ment by which the French king provided money and arms secretly for the Americans. An agent named 
Beaumarchais was sent to London to confer with Lee, and it was arranged that two hundred thousand 
Louis d'ors, in arms, ammunition, and specie, should be sent to the Americans, but in a manner to make it 
appear as a commercial transaction. Mr. Lee assumed the name of Mary Johnson, and Beaumarchais that 
of Roderique, Hortales, & Co. Lee, fearing discovery if he should send a written notice to Congress of 
the arrangement, communicated the fact verbally through Captain Thomas Story, who had been upon the 
continent in the service of the Secret Committee. Yet, after all the arrangements were made, there was 
hesitation, and it was not until the autumn of 1777 that the articles were sent to the Americans. They 
were shipped on board Le Henreux, in the fictitious name of Hortales, by the way of Cape Francois, and 
arrived at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the 1st of November of that year. The brave and efficient 
Baron Steuben was a passenger in that ship. 

This arrangement, under the disguise of a mercantile operation, subsequently produced a great deal of 
trouble, a more minute account of which will be hereafter given. 

Beaumarchais was one of the most active business men of his time, and became quite distinguished in 
the literary and political world by his ^'■Marriage of Figaro,^ ^ and his connection with the French Revolu- 
tion in 1793. Borne, in one of his charming Letters from Paris, after describing his visit to the house 
where Beaumarchais had lived, where " they now sell kitchen salt," thus speaks of him : " By his bold and 
fortunate commercial undertakings, he had become one of the richest men in France. In the war of Amer- 
ican liberty, he furnished, through an understanding with the French government, supplies of arms to the 
insurgents. As in all such undertakings, there were captures, shipwrecks, payments deferred or refused, 
yet Beaumarchais, by his dexterity, succeeded in extricating himself with personal advantage from all 
these dilficulties. 

" Yet this same Beaumarchais showed himself, in the (French) revolution, as inexperienced as a child 
and as timid as a German closet-scholar. He contracted to furnish weapons to the revolutionary govern- 
ment, and not only lost his money, but was near losing his head into the bargain. Formerly he had to 
deal with the ministers of an absolute monarchy. The doors of great men's cabinets open and close softly 
and easily to him who knows how to oil the locks and hinges. Afterward Beaumarchais had to do with 
honest, in other words with dangerous people ; he had not learned to make the distinction, and accordingly 
he was ruined." He died in 1799, in his 70th vear, and his death, his friends suppose, was voluntary. 



OF THE REVOLUTION. 87 



Unmasking of the French King. Independence of the United States acknowledged by France. Letter of Louis XVL 

Burgoyne and his army (intelligence of which arrived at Paris by express on the 4th of De- 
cember) reached Versailles, and the ultimate success of the Americans was hardly problem- 
atical, Louis cast off all disguise, and informed the American commissioners, through M. 
Gerard, one of his Secretaries of State, that the treaty of alliance and commerce, already 
negotiated, would be ratified, and " that it was decided to acknowledge the independence 
of the United States." He wrote to his uncle, Charles IV. of Spain, urging his co-opera- 
tion ; for, according to the family compact of the Bourbons, made in 1761, the King of 
Spain was to be consulted before such a treaty could be ratified.' Charles refused to co- 
operate, but Louis persevered, and in February, 1778, he acknowledged the in- 
dependence of the United States, and entered into treaties of alliance and com- ^ ^^^ ' 
merce with them on a footing of perfect equality and reciprocity. War against England 
was to be made a common cause, and it was agreed that neither contracting party should 
conclude truce or peace with Great Britain without the formal consent of the other first ob- 
tained ; and it was mutually covenanted not to lay down their arms until the independence 
of the United States should be formally or tacitly assured by the treaty or treaties that 
should terminate the war.* Thus allied, by treaty, with the ancient and powerful French 
nation, the Americans felt certain of success. 



' This letter of Louis was brought to light during the Revolution of 1793. It is a curious document, 
and illustrates the consummate duplicity practiced by that monarch and his ministers. Disclosing, as it 
does, the policy which governed the action of the French court, and the reasons which induced the king 
to accede to the wishes of the Americans, its insertion here will doubtless be acceptable to the reader. It 
was dated January 8th, 1778. 

"The sincere desire," said Louis, "which I feel of maintaining the true harmony and unity of our sys- 
tem of alliance, which must always have an imposing character for our enemies, induces me to state to 
your majesty my way of thinking on the present condition of affairs. England, our common and inveterate 
enemy, has been engaged for three years in a war with her American colonies. We had agreed not to 
intermeddle with it, and, viewing both sides as English, we made our trade free to the one that found most 
advantage in commercial intercourse. In this manner America provided herself with arms and ammuni- 
tion, of which she was destitute ; I do not speak of the succors of money and other kinds tvhich we have given 
her, the ivhole ostensibly on the score of trade. England has taken umbrage at these succors, and has not 
concealed from us that she will be revenged sooner or later. She has already, indeed, seized several of 
our merchant vessels, and refused restitution. We have lost no time on our part. We have fortified our 
most exposed colonies, and placed our fleets upon a respectable footing, which has continued to aggravate 
the ill humor of England. 

" Such was the posture of affairs in November last. The destruction of the army of Burgoyne and the 
straitened condition of Howe have lately changed the face of things. America is triumphant and England 
cast down ; but the latter has still a great, unbroken maritime force, and the hope of forming a beneficial 
alliance with the colonies, the impossibility of their being subdued by arms being now demonstrated. All 
the English parties agree on this point. Lord North has himself announced in full Parliament a plan of 
pacification for the first session, and all sides are assiduously employed upon it. Thus it is the same to us 
whether this minister or any other be in power. From different motives they join against us, and do not 
forget our bad offices. They will fall upon us in as great strength as if the war had not existed. This 
being understood, and our grievances against England notorious, I have thought, after taking the advice 
of my council, and particularly that of M. D'Ossune, and having consulted upon the propositions which the 
insurgents make, to treat with them, to prevent their reunion loith the mother country. I laj^ before your 
majesty my views of the subject. 1 have ordered a memorial to be submitted to you, in which they are 
presented in more detail. I desire eagerly that they should meet your approbation. Knowing the weight 
of your probity, your majesty will not doubt the lively and sincere friendship with which I am yours,"' &c. — 
Quoted by Pitkin (i., 399) from Histoire, &c., de la Diplomatic Franjais, vol. vii. 

^ Sparks's Life of Franklin, 430, 433. 



88 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 

A Lady of the Revolution. SufJerings of herself and Family. Her Husband's Pension allowed her. 



CHAPTER, IV. 

" The sun has drunk 
The dew that lay upon the morning grass ; 
There is no rustling in the lofty elm 
That canopies my dwelling, and its shade 
Scarce cools me. All is silent save the faint 
And interrupted murmur of the bee, 
Sitting on the sick flowers, and then again 
Instantly on the wing. The plants around 
Feel the too potent fervors ; the tall maize 
Rolls up its long green leaves ; the clover droops 
Its tender foliage, and declines its blooms. 
But far in the fierce sunshine tower the hills, 
With all their growth of woods, silent and stern, 
As if the scorching heat and dazzlins light 
Were but an element they loved."' 

Bryant. 

^^S^V^^C T was early in the morning of such a day as the poet refers to that we 
' commenced a ride and a ramble over the historic grounds of Saratoga near 
Schuylerville, accompanied by the friendly guide whose proffered services I have 
■ already mentioned. We first rode to the residence of Mrs. J — n, one of the al- 
most centenarian representatives of the generation cotemporary with our Revo- 
lution, now so few and hoary. She was in her ninety-second year of life, yet her 
^ mental faculties were quite vigorous, and she related her sad experience of the 
trials of that war with a memory remarkably tenacious and correct. Her sight 
'^^^^r and hearing were defective, and her skin wrinkled ; but in her soft blue eye, reg- 
^^^■'- "^^^ features, and delicate form were lingering many traces of the beauty of her 
"^^^n early womanhood. She was a young lady of twenty years when Independence 
■f,> was declared, and was living with her parents at Do-ve-gat (Coveville) when Bur- 
goyne came dovra the valley. She was then betrothed, but her lover had shouldered 
his musket, and was in Schuyler's camp. 

While Burgoyne was pressing onward toward Fort Edward from Skenesborough, the 
people of the valley below, who were attached to the patriot cause, fled hastily to Albany. 
Mrs. J — n and her parents were among the fugitives. So fearful were they of the Indian 
scouts sent forward, and of the resident Tories, not a whit less savage, who were emboldened 
by the proximity of the invader, that for several nights previous to their flight they slept in 
a swamp, apprehending that their dwelling would be burned over their heads or that murder 
would break in upon their repose. And when they returned home, after the surrender of 
Burgoyne, all was desolation. Tears filled her eyes when she spoke of that sad return. 
" We had but little to come home to," she said. " Our crops and our cattle, our sheep, 
hogs, and horses, were all gone, yet we knelt down in our desolate room and thanked God 
sincerely that our house and barns were not destroyed." She wedded her soldier soon after- 
ward, and during the long widowhood of her evening of life his pension has been secured to 
her, and a few years ago it was increased in amount. She referred to it, and with quiver- 
ing lip — quivering with the emotions of her full heart — said, " The government has been 
very kind to me in my poverty and old age." She was personally acquainted with General 
Schuyler, and spoke feelingly of the noble-heartedness of himself and lady in all the relations 
of life. While pressing her hand in bidding her farewell, the thought occurred that we 




OF THE REVOLUTION. 



89 



Remains of the Fortifications of Burgoyne's Camp. 



The Reidesel House. 



Narrative of the Baroness Reidesel. 



1848. 



represented the linking of the living, vigorous, active present, and the half-buried, decaying 
past; and that betw^een her early womanhood and now all the grandeur and glory of our 
Republic had dawned and brightened into perfect day. 

From Mrs. J — n's we rode to the residence of her brother, the house wherein the Baron- 
ess Reidesel, with her children and female companions, was sheltered just before the sur- 
render of Burgoyne. It is about a mile above Schuylerville, and nearly opposite the mouth 
of the Batten Kill. On our way we paused to view the remains of the fortifications of 
Burgoyne's camp, upon the heights a little west of the village. Prominent traces of the 
mounds and ditches are there visible in the woods. A little northwest of the village the 
lines of the defenses thrown up by the Germans and Hessians of Hanau may be distinctly 
seen. (See map, page 77.) 

The house made memorable by the presence and the pen of the wife of the Brunswick 
_^^:?j .,,v general is well preserved. At the time of 

the Revolution it was owned by Peter Lan- 
sing, a relative of the chancellor of that name, 
and now belongs to Mr. Samuel Mar- 
shall, who has the good taste to keep 
up its original character. It is upon the high 
bank west of the road from Schuylerville to 
Fort Miller, pleasantly shaded in front by lo- 
custs, and fairly embowered in shrubbery and 
fruit trees. 

We will listen to the story of the sufferings 
of some of the women of Burgoyne's camp in 
that house, as told by the baroness herself : 
"About two o'clock in the afternoon we again 
heard a firing of cannon and small arms ; in- 
stantly all was alarm, and every thing in motion. My husband told me to go to a house 
not far off. I immediately seated myself in my caleche, with my children, and drove off; 
but scarcely had we reached it before I discovered five or six armed men on the other side 
of the Hudson. Instinctively I threw my children down in the caleche, and then concealed 
myself with them. At this moment the fellows fired, and wounded an already wounded 
English soldier, who was behind me. Poor fellow ! I pitied him exceedingly, but at tliis 
moment had no power to relieve him. 

" A terrible cannonade was commenced by the enemy against the house in which I sought 
to obtain shelter for myself and children, under the mistaken idea that all the generals were 
in it. Alas I it contained none but wounded and women. We were at last obliged to re- 
sort to the cellar for refuge, and in one corner of this I 
remained the whole day, my children sleeping on the earth 
with their heads in my lap ; and in the same situation I 
passed a sleepless night.' Eleven icannon-balIs passed 
through the house, and we could distinctly hear them roll 
away. One poor soldier, who was lying on a table for 
the purpose of having his leg amputated, was struck bv 
a shot, which carried away his other ; his comrades had ^^''''^ °^ ^'^ Reidesel House. 
left him, and when we went to his assistance we found him in a corner of the room, into 
which he had crept, more dead than alive, scarcely breathing. * My reflections on the dan- 
ger to which my husband was exposed now agonized me exceedingly, and the thoughts of 
my children, and the necessity of struggling for their preservation, alone sustained me. 




The Reidesel House, Saratoga. 




' The cellar is about fifteen by thirty feet in size, and lighted and ventilated by two small windows only. 
^ The place where this ball entered is seen under the window near the corner, and designated in the 
picture by a small black spot. 



90 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 

Companione in Misery of the Baroness Reidesel. Wounded Soldiers. Kindness of General Schuyler. 

" The ladies of the army who were with me were Mrs. Harnage, a Mrs. Kennels the 
widow of a lieutenant who was killed, and the lady of the commissary. Major Harnage, 
his wife, and Mrs. Kennels made a little room in a corner with curtains to it, and Avished to 
do the same for me, but I preferred being near the door, in case of fire. Not far off my 
women slept, and opposite to us three English officers, who, though wounded, were determ- 
ined not to be left behind ; one of them was Captain Green, an aid-de-camp to Major-gen- 
eral Phillips, a very valuable officer and most agreeable man. They each made me a most 
sacred promise not to leave me behind, and, in case of sudden retreat, that they would each 
of them take one of my children on his horse ; and for myself one of my husband's was in 

constant readiness The want of water distressed us much ; at length we 

found a soldier's wife who had courage enough to fetch us some from the river, an office 
nobody else would undertake, as the Americans shot at every person who approached it ; 
but, out of respect for her sex, they never molested her. 

" I now occupied myself through the day in attending the wounded ; I made them tea 
and coffee, and often shared ray dinner with them, for which they offered me a thousand 
expressions of gratitude. One day a Canadian officer came to our cellar, who had scarcely 
the power of holding himself upright, and we concluded he was dying for want of nourish- 
ment ; I was happy in offering him my dinner, which strengthened him, and procured me 
his friendship. I now undertook the care of Major Bloomfield, another aid-de-camp of Gen- 
eral Phillips ; he had received a musket-ball through both cheeks, which in its course had 
knocked out several of his teeth and cut his tongue ; he could hold nothing in his mouth, 
the matter which ran from his wound almost choked him, and he was not able to take any 
nourishment except a little soup or something liquid. We had some R-henish wine, and, in 
the hope that the acidity of it would cleanse his wound, I gave him a bottle of it. He 
took a little now and then, and with such effect that his cure soon followed ; thus I added 
another to my stock of friends, and derived a satisfaction which, in the midst of sufferings, 
served to tranquilize me and diminish their acuteness. 

" One day General Phillips accompanied my husband, at the risk of their lives, on a visit 
to us. The general, after having beheld our situation, said to him, ' I would not for ten 
thousand guineas come again to this place ; my heart is almost broken.' 

" In this horrid situation we remained six days ; a cessation of hostilities was now spoken 
of, and eventually took place." 

The baroness, in the simple language of her narrative, thus bears testimony to the gen- 
erous courtesy of the American officers, and to the true nobility of character of General 
Schuyler in particular : " My husband sent a message to me to come over to him with my 
children. I seated myself once more in my dear caleche, and then rode through the Amer- 
ican camp. As I passed on I observed, and this was a great consolation to me, that no one 
eyed me with looks of resentment, but they all greeted us, and even showed compassion in 
their countenances at the sight of a woman with small children. I was, I confess, afraid 
to go over to the enemy, as it was quite a new situation to me. When I drew near the 
tents a handsome man approached and met me, took my children froyn the caleche, and 
hugged and kissed them, ivhich affected mc almost to tears. ' You tremble,' said he, ad- 
dressing himself to me ; ' be not afraid.' ' No,' I answered, ' you seem so kind and tender 
to my children, it inspires me with courage.' He now led me to the tent of General Gates, 
where I found Generals Burgoyne and Phillips, who were on a friendly footing with the 
former. Burgoyne said to me, ' Never mind ; your sorrows have now an end.' I answered 
him that I should be reprehensible to have any cares, as he had none ; and I was pleased 
to see him on such friendly footing with General Gates. All the generals remained to dine 
with General Gates. 

" The same gentleman who received me so kindly now came and said to me, ' You will 
be very much embarrassed to eat with all these gentlemen ; co)ne ivith your children to 
my tent, ivhere I will prepare for you a frugal dinner, and give it with a free will.' I 
said, ' You are certainly a husbatid and a father, you have shown me so much kindness.' 



OF THE REVOLUTION. 



91 



Arrival of the British Officers and Women at Albany. 



Courtesy of General Schuyler and Family. 



T now found that he was General Schuyler. He treated me with excellent smoked 




Generai, Schdyler and B.\roness Reidesel. 

tongue, beef-steaks, potatoes, and good bread and butter I Never could I have wished to eat 
a better dinner ; I was content ; I saw all around me were so likewise ; and, what was 
better than all, my husband was out of danger. 

" When we had dined he told me his residence was at Albany, and that General Bur- 
goyne intended to honor him as his guest, and invited myself and children to do so likewise. I 
asked my husband how I should act ; he told me to accept the invitation. As it was two 
days' journey there, he advised me to go to a place which was about three hours' ride distant. 

" Soijie days after this we arrived at Albany, where we so often wished ourselves ; but 
we did not enter it as we expected we should — victors I' We were received by the good 
General Schuyler, his wife, and daughters, not as enemies, but kind friends ; and they treated 
us with the most marked attention and politeness, as they did General, Burgoyne, who had 
caused General Schuyler's beautifully-finished house to be burned. In fact, they behaved 
like persons of exalted minds, who determined to bury all recollections of their own injuries 
in the contemplation of our misfortunes. General Burgoyne was struck with General Schuy- 
ler's generosity, and said to him, ' You show me great kindness, though I have done you 
much injury.' • That was the fate of war,' rephed the brave man ; ' let us say no more 
about it.'" 

General Schuyler was detained at Saratoga when Burgoyne and suite started for Albany. 

' General Burgoyne boasted at Fort Edward that he should eat a Christmas dinner in Albany, surrounded 
by his victorious army. 



92 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 

British Officers at Schuyler's House. Execution-place of Lovelace. Active and Passive Tories. Rendezvous of Lovelace. 




He wrote to his wife to give the English general the very best reception in her power. 
" The British commander was well received," says the Marquis de Chastellux/ in his Trav- 
els in America, " by Mrs. Schuyler, and lodged in the best apartment in the house. An 
excellent supper was served him in the evening, the honors of which were done with so 
much grace that he was affected even to tears, and said, with a deep sigh, ' Indeed, this is 
doing too much ibr the man who has ravaged their lands and burned their dwellings.' The 
next morning he was reminded of his misfortunes by an incident that would have amused any 
one else. His bed was prepared in a large room ; but as he had a numerous suite, or family, 
several mattresses were spread on the floor for some officers to sleep near him. Schuyler's 
second son, a little fellow about seven years old, very arch and forward, but very amiable, 
was running all the morning about the house. Opening the door of the saloon, he burst out 
a laughing on seeing all the English collected, and shut it after him, exclaiming, ' You are 
all my prisoners I' This innocent cruelty rendered them more melancholy than before." 

We next visited the headquarters of General Gates, south of the Fish Creek, delineated on 

page 75. On our way we passed the spot, a few rods south of the creek, _ 

where Lovelace, a prominent Tory, was hung. It is upon the high bluff 
seen on the right of the road in the annexed sketch, which was taken 
from the lawn in front of the rebuilt mansion of General Schuyler. 

Lovelace was a fair type of his class, the bitterest and most impla- 
cable foes of the republicans. There were many 
Tories who were so from principle, and re- --- -g 
fused to take sides against the parent coun- 
try from honest convictions of the wrong- 
fulness of such a course. They looked upon 
the Whigs as rebels against their sovereign ; 
condemned the war as unnatural, and re- 
garded the final result as surely disastrous 

,.- "" Place WHERE Lovelace WAS Executed. 

to those who had lilted up the arm oi oppo- 
sition. Their opinions were courteously but firmly expressed ; they took every opportunity 
to dissuade their friends and neighbors from participation in the rebellion ; and by all their 
words and acts discouraged the insurgent movement. But they shouldered no musket, girded 
on no sword, piloted no secret expedition against the republicans. They were passive, noble- 
minded men, and deserve our respect for their consistency and our commiseration for their 
sufferings at the hands of those who made no distinction between the man of honest opin- 
ions and the marauder with no opinions at all. 

There was another class of Tories, governed by the footpad's axiom, that " might makes 
right." They were Whigs when royal power was weak, and Tories when royal power was 
strong. Their god was mammon, and they offered up human sacrifices in abundance upon 
its altars. Cupidity and its concomitant vices governed all their acts, and the bonds of con- 
sanguinity and affection were too weak to restrain their fostered barbarism. Those born in 
the same neighborhood ; educated (if at all) in the same school ; admonished, it may be, by 
the same pastor, seemed to have their hearts suddenly closed to every feeling of friendship or 
of love, and became as relentless robbers and murderers of neighbors and friends as the sav- 
ages of the wilderness. Of this class was Thomas Lovelace, who, for a time, became a ter- 
ror to his old neighbors and friends in Saratoga, his native district. 

At the commencement of the war Lovelace went to Canada, and there confederated with 
five other persons from his own county to come down into Saratoga and abduct, plunder, or 
betray their former neighbors. He was brave, expert, and cautious. His quarters were in 
a large swamp about five miles from the residence of Colonel Van Vechten at Do-ve-gat, 
but his place of rendezvous was cunningly concealed. Robberies were frequent, and several 
inhabitants were carried off. General Schuyler's house was robbed, and an attempt was 

' A French officer, who served in the army in this country during a part of the Revolution. 



OF THE REVOLUTION. 93 



Capture and Death of Lovelace. Daring Adventure of an American Soldier. Departure from Schuylerville. 

made by Lovelace and his companions to carry off Colonel Van Vechten ; but the active 
vigilance of General Stark, then in command of the barracks north of the Fish Creek/ in 
furnishing the colonel with a guard, frustrated the marauder's plans. Intimations of his in- 
tentions and of his place of concealment were given to Captain Dunham, who commanded 
a company of militia in the neighborhood, and he at once summoned his lieutenant, ensign, 
orderly, and one private to his house. ^ At dark they proceeded to the " Big Swamp," three 
miles distant, where two Tory families resided. They separated to reconnoiter, but two of 
them, Green and Guiles, got lost. The other three kept together, and at dawn discovered 
Lovelace and his party in a hut covered over with boughs, just drawing on their stockings. 
The three Americans crawled cautiously forward till near the hut, when they sprang upon a 
log with a shout, leveled their muskets, and Dunham exclaimed, " Surrender, or you are all 
dead men I" There was no time for parley, and, believing that the Americans were upon 
them in force, they came out one by one without arms, and were marched by their captors to 
General Stark at the barracks. They were tried by a court-martial as spies, traitors, and 
robbers, and Lovelace, who was considered too dangerous to be allowed to escape, was sen- 
tenced to be hung. He complained of injustice, and claimed the leniency due to a prisoner 
of war ; but his plea was disallowed, and three days afterward he was hung upon the brow 
of the hill at the place delineated, during a tremendous storm of rain and wind, accompanied 
by vivid lightning and clashing thunder-peals. These facts were communicated to me by 
the son of Colonel Van Vechten, who accompanied me to the spot, and who was well ac- 
quainted with all the captors of Lovelace and his accomplices. 

The place where Gates and Burgoyne had their first interview (delineated on page 81) 
is about half way between the Fish Creek and Gates's headquarters. After visiting these 
localities, we returned to the village, and spent an hour upon the ground where the British 
army laid down their arms. This locality I have already noted, and will not detain the 
reader longer than to mention the fact that the plain whereon this event took place formed 
a part of the extensive meadows of General Schuyler, and to relate a characteristic adven- 
ture which occurred there. 

While the British camp was on the north side of the Fish Creek, a number of the offi- 
cers' horses were let loose in the meadows to feed. An expert swimmer among the Amer- 
icans who swarmed upon the hills east of the Hudson, obtained permission to go across and 
capture one of the horses. He swam the river, seized and mounted a fine bay gelding, and 
in a few moments was recrossing the stream unharmed, amid a volley of bullets from a party 
of British soldiers. Shouts greeted him as he returned ; and, when rested, he asked per- 
mission to go for another, telling the captain that he ought to have a horse to ride as well 
as a private. Again the adventurous soldier was among the herd, and, unscathed, returned 
with an exceedingly good match for the first, and presented it to his commander.^ 

Bidding our kind friend and guide adieu, we left Schuylerville toward evening, in a pri- 
vate carriage, for Fort Miller, six miles further up the Hudson. The same beautiful and 
diversified scenery, the same prevailing quiet that charmed us all the way from Waterford, 
still surrounded us ; and the river and the narrow alluvial plain through which it flows, 
bounded on either side by high undulations or abrupt pyramidal hills, which cast lengthened 
shadows in the evening sun across the meadows, presented a beautiful picture of luxurious 
repose. We crossed the Hudson upon a long bridge built on strong abutments, two miles 
and a half above Schuylerville, at the place where Burgoyne and his army crossed on the 
12th of September, 1777. The river is here quite broad and shallow, and broken by fre- 
quent rifts and rapids. 

We arrived at Fort Miller village, on the east bank of the river, between five and six 
o'clock ; and while awaiting supper, preparatory to an evening canal voyage to Fort Ed- 
ward, nine miles above, I engaged a water-man to row me across to the western bank, to 

' The place where these barracks were located is just within the northern suburbs of Schuylerville. 
2 Davis, Green, Gu-les, and Burden. ^ Neilson, 223. 



94 



PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 



Visit to the Site of old Fort Edward. Tragedy of " Bloody Run." Daring Feat by Putnam. Fort Miller Fording-place. 

view the site of the old fort. He was a very obliging man, and well acquainted with the 
localities in the neighborhood, but was rather deficient in historical knowledge. His at- 
tempts to relate the events connected with the old fort and its vicinity were amusing ; for 
Putnam's ambush on Lake Champlain, and the defeat of Pyles by Lee, in North Carolina, 
with a slight tincture of correct narrative, were blended together as parts of an event which 
occurred at Fort Miller. 

We crossed the Hudson just above the rapids. A dam for milling purposes spans the 
stream, causing a sluggish current and deeper water for more than two miles above. Here 
was the scene of one of Putnam's daring exploits. While a major in the English provincial 
army, nearly twenty years before the Revolution, he was lying in a bateau on the east side 
of the river, and was suddenly surprised by a party of Indians. He could not cross the 
river swiftly enough to escape the balls of their rifles, and there was no alternative but to 
go down the foaming rapids. In an instant his purpose was fixed, and, to the astonishment of 
the savages, he steered directly down the current, amid whirling eddies and over shelving rocks. 
In a few moments his vessel cleared the rush of waters, and was gliding upon the smooth cur- 
rent below, far out of reach of the weapons of the Indians. It was a feat they never dared at- 
tempt, and superstition convinced them that he was so favored by the Great Spirit that it would 
be an affront to Manitou to attempt to kill him with powder and ball. Other Indians of the 
,,-, tribe, however, soon afterward gave practical 

ii^'WRC- evidence of their unbelief in such interposition. 

There is not a vestige of Fort Miller left, 
and maize, and potatoes, and pumpkin vines 
were flourishing where the rival forces of Sir 
William Johnson and the Baron Dieskau al- 
ternately paraded. At the foot of the hill, a 
few rods below where the fort stood, is a part 
of the trench and bank of a redoubt, and this 
is all that remains even of the outworks of 
the fortification. 

An eighth of a mile westward is Bloody 
Run, a stream which comes leaping in spark- 
ling cascades from the hills, and afibrds fine 
trout fishing. It derives its name from the 
fact that, while the English had possession of 
the fort in 1759, a party of soldiers from the gar- 
rison went out to fish at the place represented 
in the picture. The hills, now cultivated, were 
then covered with dense forests, and afforded the 
Indians excellent ambush. A troop of savages, 
lying near, sprang silently from their covert upon 
the fishers, and bore off" nine reeking scalps be- 
fore those who escaped could reach the fort and 
give the alarin. 

This clear mountain stream enters the Hudson 
a little above Fort Miller, where the river makes 
a sudden curve, and where, before the erection of 
the dam at the rapids, it was quite shallow, and 
usually fordable. This was the crossing-place 
for the armies ; and there are still to be seen some of the logs and stones upon the shore which 
formed a part of the old " King's Road" leading to the fording-place. They are now sub- 




Bloody Run. 




FoKT MiLLEK Fording-place.' 



' This view is taken from the site of the fort, looking northward. The fort was in the town of Northum- 
berland. It was built of logs and earth, and was never a post of great importance. 



OF THE REVOLUTION. 



95 



Canal Voyage to Fort Edward. 



Scene on Board. 



Fort Edward. 



National Debt of England. 



merged, the river having been made deeper by the dam ; but M^hen the water is limpid they 
can be plainly seen. It was twilight before we reached the village on the eastern shore. 
We supped and repaired to the packet office, where we waited until nine o'clock in the 
evening before the shrill notes of a tin horn brayed out the annunciation of a packet near. 
Its deck was covered with passengers, for the interesting ceremony of converting the dining- 
room into a dormitory, or swinging the hammocks or berths and selecting their occupants, 
had commenced, and all were driven out, much to their own comfort, but, strange to say, 
to the dissatisfaction of many who lazily preferred a sweltering lounge in the cabin to the 
delights of fresh air and the bright starlight. Having no interest in the scramble for beds, 
we enjoyed the evening breeze and the excitement of the tiny tumult. My companion, fear- 
ing the exhalations upon the night air, did indeed finally seek shelter in one end of the cabin, 
but was driven, with two other young ladies, into the captain's state-room, to allow the 
" hands" to have full play in making the beds. Imprisoned against their will, the ladies 
made prompt restitution to themselves by drawing the cork of a bottle of sarsaparilla and 
sipping its contents, greatly to the consternation of a meek old dame, the mother of one of 

:^^^ the girls, who was sure it was " bed-bug pizen, or some- 
thing a pesky sight worse." We landed at Fort Ed- 
ward at midnight, and took lodgings at a small but 
tidily-kept tavern close by the canal. 

Fort Edward was a military post of considerable im- 
portance during the French and Indian wars and the 
Revolution.' The locality, previous to the erection of 
the fortress, was called the Jirst carrying-place, being 
the first and nearest point on the Hudson where the 
troops, stores, &c., were landed while passing to or from 
the south end of Lake Champlain, a distance of about 
twenty-five miles. The fort was built in 1755, when 
six thousand troops were collected there, under General 
Lyman, waiting the arrival of General Johnson, the com- 
mander-in-chief of an expedition against Ticonderoga and 
Crown Point. It was at first called Fort Lyman, in 
honor of the general who superintended its erection. It 




Fort Edward.2 



^ I refer particularly to the war between England and France, commonly called, in Europe, the Seven 
Years' War. It was declared on the 9th of June, 1756, and ended with the treaty at Paris, concluded 
and signed February 10th, 1763. It extended to the colonies of the two nations in America, and was car- 
ried on with much vigor here until the victory of Wolfe at Quebec, in 1759, and the entire subjuo-ation of 
Canada by the English. The French managed to enlist a large proportion of the Indian tribes in their 
favor, who were allied with them against the Britons. It is for that reason that the section of the Seven 
Years' War in America was called by the colonists the " French 

and Indian War." I would here mention incidentally that that ^*- '"^ 

war cost Great Britain five hundred and sixty millions of dol- 
lars, and laid one of the largest foundation stones of that national 
debt under which she now groans. It was twenty millions in 
the reign of William and Mary, in 1697, and was then thought 
to be enormous ; in 1840 it was about four thousand millions 
of dollars ! 

* Explanation : a a a a a a., six cannons ; A, the barracks ; 
B, the store-house ; C, the hospital ; D, the magazine ; E, a 
flanker; F, a bridge across Fort Edward Creek; and G, a 
balm of Gilead tree which then overshadowed the massive 
watei'-gate. That tree is still standing, a majestic relic of the 
past, amid the surrounding changes in nature and art. It is 
directly upon the high bank of the Hudson, and its branches, 
heavily foliated when I was there, spread very high and wide. 
At the union below its three trunks it measures more than 
twenty feet in circumference. 




Bal.m of Gilead at Foet Edward 



9G 



PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 



Darin" Feat of Putnam at Fort Edward. Jane M'Crea Tree. Sir William JohnBon and his Title. Fortificatione. 

was built of logs and earth, sixteen feet high and twenty-tM^o feet thick, and stood at the 
junction of Fort Edward Creek and the Hudson River. From the creek, around the fort to 
the river, was a deep fosse or ditch, designated in the engraving by the dark dotted part 
outside of the black lines. 

There are still very prominent traces of the banks and fosse of the fort, but the growing 
village will soon spread over and obliterate them forever. Already a garden was within 
the lines ; and the old parade-ground, wherein Sir William Johnson strutted in the haughty 
pride of a victor by accident,* was desecrated by beds of beets, parsley, radishes, and onions. 

Fort Edward was the theater of another daring achievement by Putnam. In the win- 
ter of 1756 the barracks, then near the northwestern bastion, took fire. The magazine was 
only twelve feet distant, and contained three hundred barrels of gunpowder. Attempts were 
made to batter the barracks to the ground with heavy cannons, but without success. Put- 
nam, who was stationed upon Rogers's Island, in the Hudson, opposite the fort, hurried 
thither, and, taking his station on the roof of the barracks, ordered a line of soldiers to hand 
him water. But, despite his efforts, the flames raged and approached nearer and nearer to 
the magazine. The commandant, Colonel Haviland, seeing his danger, ordered him down ; 
but the brave major did not leave his perilous post until the fabric began to totter. He 
then leaped to the ground, placed himself between the falling building and the magazine, 
and poured on water with all his might. The external planks of the magazine were con- 
sumed, and there was only a thin partition between the flames and the powder. But Put- 
nam succeeded in subduing the flames and saving the ammunition. His hands and face 
were dreadfully burned, his whole body was more or less blistered, and it was several weeks 
before he recovered from the effects of his daring conflict with the fire.^ 

The first place of historic interest that we visited at Fort Edward was the venerable and 
blasted pine tree near which, tradition asserts, the unfortunate Jane M'Crea lost her life 
while General Burgoyne had his encampment near Sandy Hill. It stands upon the west 
side of the road leading from Fort Edward to Sandy Hill, and about half a mile from the 
canal-lock in the former village. The tree had exhibited unaccountable signs of decadence 
for several years, and when we visited it, it was sapless and bare. Its top was torn off by 
a November gale, and almost every breeze diminishes its size by scattering its decayed twigs. 
The trunk is about five feet in diameter, and upon the bark is engraved, in bold letters, 
Jane M'Crea, 1777. The names of many ambitious visitors are intaglioed upon it, and 
reminded me of the line " Run, run, Orlando, carve on eveiy tree." I carefully sketched 
all its branches, and the engraving is a faithful portraiture of the interesting relic, as viewed 
from the opposite side of the road. In a few years this tree, around which history and ro- 
mance have clustered so many associations, will crumble and pass away forever. 

The sad story of the unfortunate girl is so interwoven in our history that it has become a 
component part ; but it is told with so many variations, in essential and non-essential par- 

^ Sir William Johnson had command of the English forces in 1755, destined to act against Crown Point. 
He was not remarkable for courage or activity. He was attacked at the south end of Lake George by t!ie 
French general, Deiskau, and was wounded at the outset. The command then devolved on Major-general 
Lyman, of the Connecticut troops, who, by his skill and bravery, secured a victory over the French and 
Indians. General Johnson, however, had the honor and reward thereof. In his mean jealou.sy he gave 
General L5'man no praise ; and the British king (George II.) made him a baronet, and a present of twenty 
thousand dollars to give the title becoming dignity. 
Note. — As I shall have frequent occasion to employ technical terms used in fortifications, I here give a dincram, which, with 

the explanation, will make those terms clear to the reader. Tlie figure is a vertical 
^!A 7 section of a fortification. The mass of earth, abed e f g h, forms the rampart with 

^^-"''^P \ "^ c \ i'^ parapet ; a b is the interior slope of the rampart ; b c\s the terre-plein of the ram- 

-ff^^^- «2-^?:- ?.-. .N^.-?. part, on which the troops and cannon arc placed \ d c\s the banquette, or step, on 

which the soldiers mount to fire over the parapet ; cfg is the parapet ; ^ A is the 
exterior slope of the parapet ; h lis the Tevetmcnt, or wall of masonry, supporting the rampart ; h /■■, the exterior front covered 
with the revetment, is called the escarp ; i kl mis the ditch ; I m ia the counterscarp ; tn n is the covered way, having a banquette 
nop; s r ia the glacis. When there arc two ditches, the works between the inner and the outer ditch are called ravelins, end 
all outside of the ditches, oniicorks. — See Brando's Cyc, art. Fortification. 

^ Peabody's Life of Putnam, American Biography, vii., 131. 



OF THE REVOLUTION. 



97 



The Fort Edward Romance. 



Mrs. M'Neil and her Grand-daughter. 



Narrative of the latter. 



ticulars, that much of the narratives we have is evidently pure fiction ; a simple tale of In- 
dian abduction, resulting in death, 
having its counterpart in a hund- 
red like occurrences, has been gar- 
nished with all the high coloring 
of a romantic love story. It seems 
a pity to spoil the romance of the 
matter, but truth always makes sad 
havoc with the frost-work of the im- 
agination, and sternly demands the 
homage of the historian's pen. 

All accounts agree that Miss 
M'Crea was staying at the house 
of a Mrs. M'Neil, near the fort, at 
the time of the tragedy. A grand- 
daughter of Mrs. M'Neil (Mrs. 

F — n) is now living at Fort 

Edward, and from her I re- 
ceived a minute account of the 
whole transaction, as she had heard 
it a " thousand times" from her 
grandmother. She is a woman of 
remarkable intelligence, about sixty 
years old. When I was at Fort 
Edward she was on a visit with 
her sister at Glenn's Falls. It had 
been my intention to go direct to 
Whitehall, on Lake Champlain, 
by way of Fort Ann, but the tra- 
ditionary accounts in the neigh- 



1848. 




Jane M'Crea Tree, Fort Edward. 

borhood of the event in question were so contradictory of the books, and I received such as- 
surances that perfect reliance might be placed upon the statements of Mrs. F — n, that, anx- 
ious to ascertain the truth of the matter, if possible, we went to Lake Champlain by way of 
Glenn's Falls and Lake George. After considerable search at the falls, I found Mrs. F — n, 
and the following is her relation of the tragedy at Fort Edward : 

Jane M'Crea was the daughter of a Scotch Presbyterian clergyman of Jersey City, oppo- 
site New York ; and while Mrs. M'Neil (then the wife of a former husband named Camp- 
bell) was a resident of New York City, an acquaintance and intimacy had grown up between 
Jenny and her daughter. After the death of Campbell (which occurred at sea) Mrs. Camp- 
bell married M'Neil. He, too, was lost at sea, and she removed with her family to an estate 

G 



98 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 

Residence of Jane M-Crea at Fort Edward. Her Betrothal. Abduction of Mrs. M'Neil and Jane. 

owned by him at Fort Edward. Mr. M'Crea, who was a widower, died, and Jane went to 
live with her brother near Fort Edward, where the intimacy of former years with Mrs. 
M'Neil and her daughter was renewed, and Jane spent much of her time at Mrs. M'Neil's 
house. Near her brother's lived a family named Jones, consisting of a widow and six sons, 
and between Jenny and David Jones, a gay young man, a feeling of friendship budded and 
ripened into reciprocal love. When the war broke out the Joneses took the royal side of the 
question, and David and his brother Jonathan went to Canada in the autumn of 1776. 
They raised a company of about sixty men, under pretext of re-enforcing the American gar- 
rison at Ticonderoga, but they went further down the lake and joined the British garrison at 
June 1, Crown Point. When Burgoyne collected his forces at St. John's, at the foot of Lake 
1777. Champlain, David and Jonathan Jones were among them. Jonathan was made 
captain and David a lieutenant in the division under General Eraser, and at the time in ques- 
tion they were with the British army near Sandy Hill. Thus far all accounts nearly agree. 
The brother of Jenny was a Whig, and prepared to move to Albany ; but Mrs. M'Neil, 
who was a cousin of General Eraser (killed at Stillwater), was a stanch loyalist, and intended 
to remain at Fort Edward. When the British were near, Jenny was at Mrs. M'Neil's, and 
lingered there even after repeated solicitations from her brother to return to his house, five 
miles further down the river, to be ready to flee when necessity should compel. A faint 
hope that she might meet her lover doubtless was the secret of her tarrying. At last her 

brother sent a peremptory order for her to join 
him, and she promised to go down in a large 
bateau' which was expected to leave with 
several families on the following day. 

Early the next morning a black juiys?. 
servant boy belonging to Mrs. M'Neil ^'^^• 
espied some Indians stealthily approaching the 
house, and, giving the alarm to the inmates, 
he fled to the fort, about eighty rods distant. 
Mrs. M'Neil's daughter, the young friend of Jenny, and mother of my informant, was with 
some friends in Argyle, and the family consisted of only the widow and Jenny, two small 
children, and a black female servant. As usual at that time, the kitchen stood a few feet 
from the house ; and when the alarm was given the black woman snatched up the children, 
fled to the kitchen, and retreated through a trap-door to the cellar.^ Mrs. M'Neil and Jenny 
followed, but the former being aged and very corpulent, and the latter young and agile, Jenny 
reached the trap-door first. Before Mrs. M'Neil could fully descend, the Indians were in 
the house, and a powerful savage seized her by the hair and dragged her up. Another 
went into the cellar and brought out Jenny, but the black face of the negro woman was 
not seen in the dark, and she and the children remained unharmed. 

With the two women the savages started off^ on the road toward Sandy Hill, for Bur- 
goyne's camp ; and when they came to the foot of the ascent on which the p/;?e tree stands, 
where the road forked, they caught two horses that were grazing, and attempted to place 
their prisoners upon them. Mrs. M'Neil was too heavy to be lifted on the horse easily, and 
as she signified by signs that she could not ride, two stout Indians took her by the arms and 
hurried her up the road over the hill, while the others, with Jenny on the horse, went along 
the road running west of the tree. 

The negro boy who ran to the fort gave the alarm, and a small detachment was imme- 

' Bateaux were rudeh' constructed of logs and planks, broad and without a keel. They had small draught, 
and would carry large loads in quite shallow water. In still water and against currents they were pro- 
pelled by long driving-poles. The ferry-scows or flats on the southern and western rivers are very much 
like the old bateaux. They were sometimes furnished with a mast for lakes and other deep water, and 
had cabins erected on them. 

^ Traces of this cellar and of the foundation of the house are still visible in the garden of Dr. Norton, in 
Fort Edward village, who is a relative of the family by marriage. 




A RivEB Bateau. 



OF THE REVOLUTION. 99 



Flight of the Indiana toward Sandy Hill. Treatment of Mrs. M'Neil. Indian Account of the Death of Jane. The Spring. 

diately sent out to effect a rescue. They fired several volleys at the Indians, but the sav- 
ages escaped unharmed. Mrs. M'Neil said that the Indians, who vi^ere hurrying- her up the 
hill, seemed to watch the flash of the guns, and several times they threw her upon her face, 
at the same time falling down themselves, and she distinctly heard the balls whistle above 
them. When they got above the second hill from the village the firing ceased ; they then 
stopped, stripped her of all her garments except her chemise, and in that plight led her into 
the British camp. There she met her kinsman, General Fraser, and reproached him bit- 
terly for sending his " scoundrel Indians" after her. He denied all knowledge of her beino- 
away from the city of New York, and took every pains to make her comfortable. She was 
so large that not a woman in camp had a gown big enough for her, so Fraser lent her his 
camp-coat for a garment, and a pocket-handkerchief as a substitute for her stolen cap. 

Very soon after Mrs. M'Neil was taken into the British camp, two parties of Indians ar- 
rived with scalps. She at once recognised the long glossy hair of Jenny,^ and, though shud- 
dering with horror, boldly charged the savages with her murder, which they stoutly denied. 

They averred that, while hurrying her along the road on 
horseback, near the spring west of the pine tree, a bullet 
from one of the American guns, intended for them, mortally 
wounded the poor girl, and she fell from the horse. Sure 
of losing a prisoner by death, they took her scalp as the next 
best thing for them to do, and that they bore in triumph to 
the camp, to obtain the promised reward for such trophies. 
Mrs. M'Neil always believed the story of the Indians to be 
true, for she knew that they were fired upon by the detach- 
ment from the fort, and it was far more to their interest to 
carry a prisoner than a scalp to the British commander, the 
price for the former being much greater. In fact, the In- 
dians were so restricted by Burgoyne's humane instructions 
respecting the taking of scalps, that their chief solicitude 
was to bring a prisoner alive and unharmed into the camp." 
And the probability that Miss M'Crea M^as killed as they 
' 1 'QiKix ;, alleged is strengthened by the fact that they took the cor- 

g 3 pulent Mrs. M'Neil, with much fatigue and difficulty, un- 

injured to the British lines, while Miss M'Crea, quite light 
and already on horseback, might have been carried off with far greater ease. 

It was known in camp that Lieutenant Jones was betrothed to Jenny, and the story got 
abroad that he had sent the Indians for her, that they quarreled on the way respecting the 
reward he had offered, and murdered her to settle the dispute. Receiving high touches of 
coloring as it w^ent from one narrator to another, the sad story became a tale of darkest hor- 
ror, and produced a deep and wide-spread indignation. This was heightened by September 2 
a published letter from Gates to Burgoyne, charging him with allowing the In- ^^~'''- 

' It was of extraordinary length and beauty, measuring a yard and a quarter. She was then about 
twenty years old, and a very lovely girl ; not lovely in beauty of face, according to the common standard 
of beauty, but so lovely in disposition, so graceful in manners, and so intelligent in features, that she was 
a favorite of all who knew her. 

^ " I positively forbid bloodshed when you are not opposed in arms. Aged men, women, children, and 
. prisoners must be held sacred from the knife and hatchet, even in the time of actual conflict. You shall 
receive compensation for the prisoners you take, but you shall be called to account for scalps. In con- 
formity and indulgence of your customs, which have affixed an idea of honor to such badges of victory, you 
shall be allowed to take the scalps of the dead when killed by your fire and in fair opposition ; but on no 
account, or pretense, or subtilty, or prevarication are they to be taken from the wounded, or even the dy- 
ing ; and still less pardonable, if possible, will it be held to kill men in that condition on purpose, and upon 
a supposition that this protection to the wounded would be thereby evaded." — Extract from the Speech of 
Burgoyne to the Indians assembled upon the Bouquet River, June 21, 1777. 

^ This is a view of a living spring, a few feet below the noted pine tree, the lower portion of which is 
seen near the top of the engraving. The spring is beside the old road, traces of which may be seen. 




100 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 

Massacre of the Allen Family. Gates's Letter. Inquiry respecting the Death of Miss M'Crea. Desertion of Lieutenant Jones. 

dians to butcher with impunity defenseless women and children. " Upward of one hund- 
red men, women, and children," said Gates, " have perished by the hands of the ruffians, to 
whom, it is asserted, you have paid the price of blood." Burgoyne flatly denied this asser- 
tion, and declared that the case of Jane M'Crea was the only act of Indian cruelty of which 
he was informed. His information must have been exceedingly limited, for on the same 
day when Jenny lost her life a party of savages murdered the whole family of John Allen, 
of Argyle, consisting of himself, his wife, three children, a sister-in-law, and three negroes. 
The daughter of Mrs. M'Neii, already mentioned, was then at the house of Mr. Allen's 
father-in-law, Mr. Gilmer, who, as well as Mr. Allen, was a Tory. Both were afraid of 
the savages, nevertheless, and were preparing to flee to Albany. On the morning of the 
massacre a younger daughter of Mr. Gilmer went to assist Mrs. Allen in preparing to move. 
Not returning when expected, her father sent a negro boy down for her. He soon returned, 
screaming, " They are all dead — father, mother, young missus, and all I" It was too true. 
That morning, while the family were at breakfast, the Indians burst in upon them and 
slaughtered every one. Mr. Gilmer and his family left in great haste for Fort Edward, 
but proceeded very cautiously for fear of the savages. When near the fort, and creeping 
warily along a ravine, they discovered a portion of the very party who had plundered Mrs. 
M'Neil's house in the morning. They had emptied the straw from the beds and filled the 
ticks with stolen articles. Mrs. M'Neil's daughter, who accompanied the fugitive family, 
saw her mother's looking-glass tied upon the back of one of the savages. They succeeded 
in reaching the fort in safety. 

Burgoyne must soon have forgotten this event and the alarm among the loyalists because 
of the murder of a Tory and his family ; forgotten how they flocked to his camp for protec- 
tion, and Eraser's remark to the frightened loyalists, "It is a conquered country, and we 
must wink at these things ;" and how his own positive orders to the Indians, not to molest 
those having protection, caused many of them to leave him and return to their hunting- 
grounds on the St. Lawrence. It was all dark and dreadful, and Burgoyne was willing to 
retreat behind a false assertion, to escape the perils which were sure to grow out of an ad- 
mission of half the truth of Gates's letter. That letter, as Sparks justly remarks, was more 
ornate than forcible, and abounded more in bad taste than simplicity and pathos ; yet it was 
suited to the feelings of the moment, and produced a lively impression in every part of Amer- 
ica. Burke, in the exercise of all his glowing eloquence, used the story with powerful effect 
in the British House of Commons, and made the dreadful tale familiar throughout Europe. 

Burgoyne, who was at Fort Ann, instituted an inquiry into the matter. He summoned 
the Indians to council, and demanded the surrender of the man who bore off the scalp, to 
be punished as a murderer. Lieutenant Jones denied all knowledge of the matter, and ut- 
terly disclaimed any such participation as the sending of a letter to Jenny, or of an Indian 
escort to bring her to camp. He had no motive for so doing, for the American army was 
then retreating ; a small guard only was at Fort Edward, and in a day or two the British 
would have full possession of that fort, when he could have a personal interview with her. 
Burgoyne, instigated by motives of policy rather than by judgment and inclination, pardoned 
the savage who scalped poor Jenny, fearing that a total defection of the Indians would be 
the result of his punishment.' 

Lieutenant Jones, chilled with horror and broken in spirit by the event, tendered a resig- 
nation of his commission, but it was refused. He purchased the scalp of his Jenny, and 
with this cherished memento deserted, with his brother, before the army reached Saratoga, 
and retired to Canada. Various accovmts have been given respecting the subsequent fate 
of Lieutenant Jones. Some assert that, perfectly desperate and careless of life, he rushed 
into the thickest of the battle on Bemis's Heights, and was slain ; while others allege that 
he died within three years afterward, heart-broken and insane. But neither assertion is 
true. While searching for Mrs. F — n among her friends at Glenn's Falls, I called at the 

' Earl of Harrington's Evidence in Burgoyne's ^^State of the Expedition.^'' p. 66. 



OF THE REVOLUTION. IQI 



Effect of Miss M'Crea's Death on Lieutenant Jones. Attack of Indians upon American Troops. Reinterment of Miss M'Crea. 

house of Judge R — s, whose lady is related by marriage to the family of Jones. Her aunt 
married a brother of Lieutenant Jones, and she often heard this lady speak of him. He 
lived in Canada to be an old man, and died but a few years ago. The death of Jenny was 
a heavy blow, and he never recovered from it. In youth he was gay and exceedingly gar- 
rulous, but after that terrible event he was melancholy and taciturn. He never married, 
and avoided society as much as business would permit. Toward the close of July in every 
year, when the anniversary of the tragedy approached, he would shut himself in his room 
and refuse the sight of any one ; and at all times his friends avoided any reference to the 
Revolution in his presence. 

At the time of this tragical event the American army under General Schuyler Avas en- 
camped at Moses's Creek, five miles below Fort Edward. One of its two divisions was 
placed under the command of Arnold, who had just reached the army. His divi- juiy 33, 
sion included the rear-guard left at the fort. A picket-guard of one hundred men, ■^'^^• 
under Lieutenant Van Vechten, was stationed on the hill a little north of the pine tree ; 
and at the moment when the house of Mrs. M'Neil was attacked and plundered, and her- 
self and Jenny were carried off, other parties of Indians, belonging to the same expedition, 
came rushing through the woods from different points, and fell upon the Americans. Lieu- 
tenant Van Vechten and several others were killed and their scalps borne off. Their bodies, 
with that of Jenny, were found by the party that went out from the fort in pursuit. She 
and the officer were lying near together, close by the spring already mentioned, and only a 
few feet from the pine tree. They were stripped of clothing, for plunder was the chief in- 
centive of the savages to war. They were borne immediately to the fort, which the Amer- 
icans at once evacuated, and Jane did indeed go dowir the river in the bateau in which she 
had intended to embark, but not glowing with life and beauty, as was expected by her fond 
brother. With the deepest grief, he took charge of her mutilated corse, which was buried 
at the same time and place with that of the lieutenant, on the west bank of the Hudson, 
near the mouth of a small creek about three miles below Fort Edward. 

Mrs. M'Neil lived many years, and was buried in the small village cemetery, very near 
the ruins of the fort. In the summer of 1826 the remains of Jenny were taken up and de- 
posited in the same grave with her. They were followed by a long train of young men and 
maidens, and the funeral ceremonies were conducted by the eloquent but unfortunate Hooper 
Cummings, of Albany, at that time a brilliant light in the American pulpit, but destined, 
like a glowing meteor, to go suddenly down into darkness and gloom. Many who were then 
young have a vivid recollection of the pathetic discourse of that gifted man, who on that oc- 
casion " made all Fort Edward weep," as he delineated anew the sorrowful picture of the 
immolation of youth and innocence upon the horrid altar of war. 

A plain white marble slab, about three feet high, 
with the simple inscription Jane M'Crea, marks 
the spot of her interment. Near by, as seen in the 
picture, is an antique brown stone slab, erected to 
the memory of Duncan Campbell, a relative of Mrs. 
M'Neil's first husband, who was mortally wounded 
at Ticonderoga in 1758.' Several others of the 
same name lie near, members of the family of Don- 
ald Campbell, a brave Scotchman who was with 

Grave of Jane M'Ckea. Tx/rj. ixT. j. • r r\ \. • i n-i ' 

Montgomery at the stormmg 01 Quebec m 177o. 
We lingered long in the cool shade at the spring before departing for the village burial- 
ground where the remains of Jenny rest. As we emerged from the woods we saw two or 

' The following is the ins'criplion : 

Here Lyes The Body of Duncan Campbell, of Inversaw, Esqr., Major to the Old Highland 
Regt., Aged 55 Years, Who Died The 17th July, 1758, of The Wounds He Received in the 
Attack of The Retrenchments of Ticonderog.*. or Carillon the 8th July, 1758. 




102 



PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 



Young Girl struck by Lightning. Village Burial-ground. Colonel Cochran and his Adventures. 



Rogers's Island. 



three persons with a horse and wagon, slowly ascending the hill from the village. In the 
wagon, upon a mattress, was a young girl who had been struck by lightning, two days be- 
fore, while drawing water from a well.' Although alive, her senses were all paralyzed by 
the shock, and her sorrowing father was carrying her home, perhaps to die. With brief 
words of consoling hope, we stepped up and looked upon the stricken one. Her breathing 
was soft and slow — a hectic glow was upon each cheek ; but all else of her fair young face 
was pale as alabaster except her lips. It was grievous, even to a stranger, to look upon a 
young life so suddenly prostrated, and we turned sadly away to go to the grave of another, 
who in the bloom of young womanhood was also smitten to the earth, not by the lightning 
from Heaven, but by the arm of warring man. 

The village burial-ground is near the site of the fort, and was thickly strewn with wild 
flowers. We gathered a bouquet from the grave of Jenny, and preserved it for the eye oi' 
the curious in an impromptu herbarium made of a city newspaper. A few feet from her 
" narrow house" is the grave of Colonel Robert Cochran, whom I have 
already mentioned as commanding a detachment of militia at Fort Ed- 
ward at the time of Burgoyne's surrender. He was a brave officer, and 
was warmly attached to the American cause. In 1778 he was sent to 
Canada as a spy. His errand being suspected, a large bounty was offered 
for his head. He was obliged to conceal himself, and while doing so at 
one time in a brush-heap, he was taken dangerously ill. Hunger and dis- 
ease made him venture to a log cabin in sight. As he approached he 
heard three men and a woman conversing on the subject of the reward for 
his head, and discovered that they were actually forming plans for his cap- 
ture. The men soon left the cabin in pursuit of him, and he immediately 
crept into the presence of the woman, who was the wife of one of the men, frankly told her 
his name, and asked her protection. That she kindly promised him, and gave him some 
nourishing food and a bed to rest upon. The men returned in the course of a few hours, 
and she concealed Cochran in a cupboard, where he overheard expressions of their confident 
anticipations that before another sun they would have the rebel spy, and claim the reward. 
They refreshed themselves, and set off again in search of him. The kind woman directed him 
to a place of concealment, some distance from her cabin, where she fed and nourished him until 
he was able to travel, and then he escaped beyond the British lines. Several years afterward, 
when the war had closed, the colonel lived at Ticonderoga, and there he accidentally met his 
deliverer, and rewarded her handsomely for her generous fidelity in the cause of suffering 
humanity. Colonel Cochran died in 1812, at Sandy Hill, and was buried at Fort Edward. 

It was hot noon when I left the village cemetery, and took shelter under the shadow 
of the venerable balm of Gilead tree at the place of the water-gate of the fort. A few rods be- 
low is the mouth of Fort Edward Creek, on 
fc,^i«*^ the south of which the British army were 




!&■ 




Mouth of tvuT Ildwakd Creek.' 



encamped when Burgoyne tarried there to 
send an expedition to Bennington, and, aft- 
er that disastrous affair, to recruit and dis- 
cipline his forces. Dividing the waters of 
the Hudson in front of the fort is Rogers's 
Island, a beautiful and romantic spot, which 
was used as a camp-ground by the English 
and French alternately during the French 
and Indian war. Almost every year the 



' This mournful event occurred in the village, very near the same spot where, a year before, five men 
in a store were instantly killed by one thunder-bolt. 

^ This sketch is taken from within the intrenchments of Fort Edward, near the magazine, looking south- 
west. On the left, just beyond the balm of Gilead tree, is seen the creek, and on the right, across the 
water, Rogers's Island. 



OF THE REVOLUTION. 



103 



Relics found on Rogers's Island. 



A remarkable Skull. 



Silver Coin found at Fort Edward. 




plow turns up some curious relics of the past upon the island, such as bayonets, tomahawks, 
buttons, bullets, cannon-balls, coin, arrow-heads, &c. Dr. Norton, of Fort Edward, gave 
me a skull that had been exhumed there, which is remarkable for its 
excessive thickness ; not so thick, however, as to resist the force of a 
musket-ball which penetrated it, and doubtless deprived its owner of 
life. It is three eighths of an inch thick where the bullet entered in 
front, and, notwithstanding its long inhumation, the sutures are per- 
fect. Its form is that of the negro, and it probably belonged to the 
servant of some officer stationed there. 

The silver coin found in the vicinity of Fort Edward is called by the people 

The derivation of this name I could 
obtained two pieces of it, both of which are Spanish 
coin. The larger one is a cross-pistareen, of the value 
of sixteen cents ; the other is a quarter fraction of the 
same coin. They are very irregular in form, and the 
devices and dates are quite imperfect. The tM^o in 
my possession are dated respectively 1741, 1743. 
These Spanish small coins composed the bulk of specie 




cob money." 
not learn. I 



Two Sides of a Cross-pistakeen. 



circulation among the French in Canada at that time. 



1 04 



PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 



Ride from Fort Edward to Glenn's Falls. 



Appearance of the Country. 



Interesting Character of the Region. 



CHAPTER V. 



" Though of the past from no carved shrines, 
Canvass, or deathless lyres, M'e learn, 
Yet arbor' d streams and shadowy pines 

Are hunjT with legends wild and .stern : 
In deep dark glen — on mountain side. 

Are graves whence stately pines have sprung. 
Naught telling how the victims died, 
Save faint tradition's faltering tongue." 

Street. 




*>\ 



E dined at three, and immediately left the pleasant little 
^ village of Fort Edward in a barouche for Glenn's Falls, by 
'^ the way of Sandy Hill, a distance of six miles. The latter village 
is beautifully situated upon the high left bank of the Hudson, where the 
river makes a sudden sweep from an easterly to a southerly course. 
^to Here is the termination of the Hudson Valley, and above it the river 
courses its way in a narrow channel, among rugged rocks and high, wooded 
bluffs, through as wild and romantic a region as the most enthusiastic 
traveler could desire. 
It was early in the afternoon when we reached the Mansion House at Glenn's 
Falls, near the cataract. All was bustle and confusion, for here is the brief 
tarrying-place of fashionable tourists on their way from Saratoga Springs to Lake George. 
There was a constant arrival and departure of visitors. Few remained longer than to dine 
or sup, view the falls at a glance, and then hasten away to the grand summer lounge at 
Caldwell, to hunt, fish, eat, drink, dance, and sleep to their heart's content. We were 
thoroughly wearied by the day's ramble and ride, but time was too precious to allow a mo- 
ment of pleasant weather to pass by unimproved. Comforted by the anticipation of a Sab- 
bath rest the next day, we brushed the dust from our clothes, made a hasty toilet, and started 
out to view the falls, and search for the tarrying-place of Mrs. F — n, of Fort Edward. 

Here the whole aspect of things is changed. Hitherto our journey had been among the 
quiet and beautiful ; now every thing in nature was turbulent and grand. The placid river 
was here a foaming cataract, and gentle slopes, yellow with the ripe harvest, were exchanged 
for high, broken hills, some rocky and bare, others green with the oak and pine or dark with 
the cedar and spruce. Here nature, history, and romance combine to interest and please, 
and geology spreads out one of its most wonderful pages for the scrutiny of the student and 
philosopher. All over those rugged hills Indian warriors and hunters scouted for ages before 
the pale face made his advent among them ; and the slumbering echoes were often awaken- 
ed in the last century by the crack of musketry and the roar of cannon, mingled with the 
loud war-hoop of the Huron, the Iroquois, the Algonquin, the Mohegan, the Delaware, the 
Adirondack, and the Mohawk, when the French and English battled for mastery in the vast 
forests that skirted the lakes and the St. Lawrence. Here, amid the roar of this very cataract, 
if romance may be believed, the voice of Uncas, the last of the Mohegans, was heard and 
heeded ; here Hawk Eye kept his vigils ; here David breathed his nasal melody ; and here 
Duncan Heyward, with his lovely and precious wards, Alice and Cora Monroe, fell into 
the hands of the dark and bitter Mingo chief 



' See Cooper's " Last of the Mohicans." 



OF THE REVOLUTION. 105 



» 



Scenery about the Falls. " Indian Cave" and " Big Snake." Departure for Lake George. 

The natural scenery about the falls is very picturesque, but the accompaniments of puny 
art are exceedingly incongruous, sinking the grand and beautiful into mere burlesque. How 
expertly the genius of man, quickened by acquisitiveness, fuses the beautiful and useful in 
the crucible of gain, and, by the subtle alchemy of profit, transmutes the glorious cascade 
and its fringes of rock and shrub into broad arable acres, or lofty houses, or speeding ships, 
simply by catching the bright stream in the toils of a mill-wheel. Such meshes are here 
spread out on every side to ensnare the leaping Hudson, and the rickety buildings, the clat- 
ter of machinery, and the harsh grating of saws, slabbing the huge black marble rocks of the 
shores into city mantels, make horrid dissonance of that harmony which the eye and ear ex- 
pect and covet where nature is thus beautiful and musical. 

A bridge, nearly six hundred feet long, and resting in the center upon a marble island, 
spans the river at the foot of the falls, and from its center there is a fine view of the cata- 
ract. The entire descent of the river is about sixty feet. The undivided stream first pours 
over a precipice nine hundred feet long, and is then separated into three channels by rocks 
piled in confusion, and carved, and furrowed, and welled, and polished by the rushing waters. 

i ;^^, ,,, Below, the channels unite, and in one 

-i%^ S-: deep stream the waters flow on gently 

between the quarried clifis of fine black 
marble, which rise in some places from 
thirty to seventy feet in height, and are 
beautifully stratified. Many fossils are 
imbedded in the rocks, among which 
the trilobite is quite plentiful. Here 
the heads (so exceedingly rare) are fre- 
quently found. 

By the contribution of a York shil- 
ling to an intelligent lad who kept " watch and ward" 
at a flight of steps below the bridge, we procured his 
"''■-- permission to descend to the rocks below, and his serv- 
ices as guide to the " Big Snake" and the " Indian Cave." The 
former is a petrifaction on the surface of a flat rock, having the ap- 
pearance of a huge serpent ; the latter extends through the small 
island from one channel to the other, and is pointed out as the place where Cooper's sweet 
young heroines, Cora and Alice, with Major Heyward and the singing-master, were conceal- 
ed. The melody of a female voice, chanting an air in a minor key, came up from the cav- 
ern, and we expected every moment to hear the pitch-pipe of David and the " Isle of Wight." 
The spell was soon broken by a merry laugh, and three young girls, one with a torn barege, 
came clambering up from the narrow entrance over which Uncas and Hawk Eye cast the 
green branches to conceal the fugitives. In time of floods this cave is filled, and all the 
dividing rocks below the main fall are covered with water, presenting one vast foaming 
sheet. A long drought had greatly diminished the volume of the stream when we were 
there, and materially lessened the usual grandeur of the picture. 

We passed the Sabbath at the falls. On Monday morning I arose at four, and went 
down to the bridge to sketch the cascade. The whole heavens were overcast, and a fresh 
breeze from the southeast was driving portentous scuds before it, and piling them in dark 
masses along the western horizon. Rain soon began to fall, and I was obliged to retreat 
under the bridge, and content myself with sketching the more quiet scene of the river and 
shore below the cataract. 

We left Glenn's Falls in a " Rockaway" for Caldwell, on Lake George, nine miles north- 
ward, at nine in the morning, the rain falling copiously. The road passes over a wild, 

^ This view was taken from under the bridge, looking down the river. The noted cave opens upon the 
river just below where the figures stand. 




<->« 



View below the Falls. ^ 



J 06 



PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 



Williams's Rock. 



Approach of Dieskau. 



Hendrick, the Mohawk Sachem. 



broken, and romantic region. Our driver was a perfect Jehu. The plank road (since fin- 
ished) was laid a small part of the way, and the speed he accomplished thereon he tried to 
keep up over the stony ground of the old track, to " prevent jolting !" 

On the right side of the road, within four miles of Lake George, is a huge boulder called 



"Williams's Rook." It was so 
named from the fact that near it 
Colonel Ephraim Williams was 
killed on the 8 th of September, 
1755, in an engagement with 
the French and Indians under 
Baron Dieskau. Major-general 
(afterward Sir William) John- 
son was at that time at the head 
of Lake George, with a body of 
provincial troops, and a large 




Williams's Rock.' 



party of Indians under Hendrick, 
the famous Mohawk sachem. 
Dieskau, who was at Skenesbor- 
ough, marched along the course 
of Wood Creek to attack Fort 
Edward, but the Canadians and 
Indians were so afraid of cannon 
that, when within two miles of 
the fort, they urged him to change 
his course, and attack Johnson in 
his camp on Lake George. To 



1755. 



this request he acceded, for he ascertained by his scouts that Johnson was rather carelessly 

encamped, and was probably unsuspicious of danger. 
Information of his march was communicated to the 
English commander at midnight, September 7th, 
and early in the morning a council of war was 
held. It was determined to send out a small party to 
meet the French, and the opinion of Hendrick was ask- 
ed. He shrewdly said, " If they are to fight, they are 
too few ; if they are to be killed, they are too many." 
His objection to the proposition to separate them into 
three divisions was quite as sensibly and laconically ex- 
pressed. Taking three sticks and putting them togeth- 
er, he remarked, " Put them together, and you can't 
break them. Take them one by one, and you can break 
them easily." Johnson was guided by the opinion of 
Hendrick, and a detachment of twelve hundred men in 
one body, under Colonel Williams, was sent out to meet 
the approaching enemy. 

Before commencing their march, Hendrick mounted 
a gun-carriage and harangued his warriors in a strain 
of eloquence which had a powerful effect upon them. He was then about sixty-five years 
old. His head was covered with long white locks, and every warrior loved him with the 
deepest veneration.' President Dwight, referring to this speech, says, " Lieutenant-colonel 




Hendrick.' 



' This view is taken from the road, looking northward. In the distance is seen the highest point of the 
French Mountain, on the left of which is Lake George. From this commanding height the French scouts 
had a fine view of all the English movements at the head of the lake. 

* The portrait here given of the chief is from a colored print published in London during the lifetime of 
the sachem. It was taken while he was in England, and habited in the full court dress presented to him 
by the king. Beneath the picture is engraved, " The brave old Hendrick, the great sachem or chief of the 
Mohawk Indians, one of the six nations now in alliance with, and subject to, the King of Great Britain." 

^ Hendrick (sometunes called King Hendrick) was born about 1680, and generally lived at the Upper 
Castle, upon the Mohawk. He stood high in the estimation of Sir William Johnson, and was one of the 
most active and sagacious sachems of his time. When the tidings of his death were communicated to his 
son, the young chief gave the u.sual groan upon such occasions, and, placing his hand over his heart, ex- 
claimed, " My father still alive here. The son is now the father, and stands here ready to fight." — Gen- 
tlemen'' s Magazine. 

Sir William Johnson obtained from Hendrick nearly one hundred thousand acres of choice land, now 
lying chiefly in Herkimer county, north of the Mohawk, in the following manner : The sachem, being at 
the baronet's house, saw a richly-embroidered coat and coveted it. The next morning he said to Sir Will- 
iam, " Brother, me dream last night." " Indeed," answered Sir William ; " what did my red brother 



OF THE REVOLUTION. 



1 07 



Speech of Hendrick. 



Fight with the French, and Death of Colonel Williams and Hendrick. 



Bloody Pond. 



Pomeroy, who was present and heard this efTusion of Indian eloquence, told me that, al- 
though he did not understand a word of the language, such were the animation of Hendrick, 
the fire of his eye, the force of his gestures, the strength of his emphasis, the apparent pro- 
priety of the inflections of his voice, and the natural appearance of his whole manner, that 
himself was more deeply affected with this speech than with any other he had ever heard." 

The French, advised by scouts of the march of the English, approached with their line 
in the form of a half moon, the road cutting the center. The country was so thickly wooded 
that all correct observation was precluded, and at Rocky Brook, four miles from Lake Georo-e, 
Colonel Williams and his detachment found themselves directly in the hollow of the half 
moon. A heavy fire was opened upon them in front and on both flanks at the same mo- 
ment, and the slaughter was dreadful. Colonel Williams was shot dead near the rock be- 
fore mentioned, and Hendrick fell, mortally wounded by a musket-ball in the back. This 
circumstance gave him great uneasiness, for it seemed to imply that he had turned his back 
upon his enemy. The fatal bullet came from one of the extreme flanks. On the fall of 
Williams, Lieutenant-colonel Whiting succeeded to the command, and effected a retreat so 
judiciously that he saved nearly all of the detachment who were not killed or wounded by 
the first onslaught.' 

So careless and apathetic was General Johnson, that he did not commence throwing up 
breast-works at his camp until after Colonel Williams had marched, and Dieskau was on 
the road to meet him. The firing was heard at Lake George, and then the alarmed com- 
mander began in earnest to raise defenses, by forming a breast-work of trees, and mountino- 
two cannon which he had fortunately received 
from Fort Edward the day before, when his men 
thus employed should have been sent out to re- 
enforce the retreating regiment. Three hund- 
red were, indeed, sent out, but were totally in- 
adequate. They met the flying English, and, 
joining in the retreat, hastened back to the camp, 
closely pursued by the French. 

A short distance from Williams's Rock is a 
small, slimy, bowl-shaped pond, about three 
hundred feet in diameter, and thickly covered 
with the leaves of the water-lily. It is near the 
battle-ground where Williams and his men were 
slain, and the French made it the sepulcher for 
the slaughtered Englishmen. Tradition avers 
that for many years its waters bore a bloody hue. 




Bloody 1'ond. 



dream ?" " Me dream that coat be mine." " It is yours," said the shrewd baronet. Not long afterward 
Sir William visited the sachem, and he too had a dream. "Brother," he said, "I dreamed last night." 
"What did my pale-faced brother dream?" asked Hendrick. "I dreamed that this tract of land was 
mine," describing a square bounded on the south by the Mohawk, on the east by Canada Creek, and north 
and west by objects equally well known. Hendrick was astonished. He saw the enormity of the request, 
but was not to be outdone in generosity. He sat thoughtfully for a moment, and then said, '" Brother, the 
land is yours, but you must not dream again." The title was confirmed bj' the British government, and 
the tract was called the Royal Grant. — Simms^s Schoharie County, p. 124. 

' Colonel Ephraim Williams was born in 1715, at Newton, Massachusetts. He made several voyages 
to Europe in early life. Being settled at Stockbridge when the war with France, in 1740, commenced, 
and possessed of great military talent, he was intrusted with the command of the line of Massachusetts 
forts on the west side of the Connecticut River. He joined General Johnson, at the head of a regiment, 
in 1755, and, as we have seen, fell while gallantly leading his men against the enemy. By his will, made 
before joining Johnson, he bequeathed his property to a township west of Fort Massachusetts, on the con- 
dition that it should be called Williamstown, and the money used for the establishment and maintenance 
of a free school. The terms were complied with, and the school was afterward incorporated (1793) as a 
college. Such was the origin of Williams's College. Colonel Williams was forty years old at the time 
of his death 



108 



PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 



Arrival at Caldwell. Indian and French Names of Lake George. Fort William Henry. Attack upon Johnson's Camp, 1755. 



and it has ever since been called Bloody Pond. I alighted in the rain, and made my way 
through tall wet grass and tangled vines, over a newly-cleared field, until I got a favorable 
view for the sketch here presented, which I hope the reader will highly prize, for it cost a 
pair of boots, a linen " sack" ruined by the dark droppings from a cotton, umbrella, and a 
box of cough lozenges. 

It was almost noon when we reined up at the Lake House at Caldwell. We had an- 
ticipated much pleasure from the first sight of Horicon, but a mist covered its waters, and 
its mountain frame-work was enveloped in fog ; so we reserved our sentiment for use the 
next fair day, donned dry clothing, and sat quietly down in the parlor to await the sover- 
eign pleasure of the storm. 

Lake George is indeed a beautiful sheet of water, and along its whole length of thirty-six 
miles almost every island, bay, and bluff is clustered with historic associations. On account 
of the purity of its waters, the Lidians gave it the name o{ Horicon, or Silver Water. They 
also called it Canideri-oit, or Tlie Tail of the Lake, on account of its connection with Lake 
Champlain.' It was visited by Samuel Champlain in 1609, and some suppose that he gave 
his name to this lake instead of the one which now bears it. It is fair to infer, from his 
own account, that he penetrated southward as far as Glenn's Falls ; and it is not a little 
remarkable that in the same year, and possibly at the same season, Hendrick Hudson was 
exploring below the very stream near the head-waters of which the French navigator was 
resting. Strange that two adventurers, in the service of different sovereigns ruling three 
thousand miles away, and approaching from different points of the compass, so nearly met 
in the vast forests of wild America. The French, who afterward settled at Chimney Point, 
on Lake Champlain, frequently visited this lake, and gave it the name of Sacrament, its 
pure waters suggesting the idea.^ 

The little village of Caldwell contains about two hundred inhabitants, and is situated 

near the site of Fort William Henry, at the head of 
the lake, a fortress erected by General Johnson to- 
ward the close of 1755, after his battle there with 
the French under Dieskau. That battle occurred 
on the same day when Colonel Williams and his de- 
tachment were routed at Rocky Brook. The French 
pursued the retreating English vigorously, and about 
noon they were seen approaching in considerable force 
and regular order, aiming directly toward the center 
of the British encampment. When within one hund- 
red rods of the breast-works, in the open valley in 
front of the elevation on which Fort George (now a 
picturesque ruin) was afterward built, Dieskau halt- 
ed and disposed his Indians and Canadians upon the 
right and left flanks. The regular troops, under the 
immediate command of the baron, attacked the En- 
glish center, but, having only small arms, the effect was trifling. The English reserved 
their fire until the Indians and Canadians were close upon them, when with sure aim they 
poured upon them a volley of musket-balls which mowed them down like grass before the 

' Spaflbrd's Gazetteer of New York. 

- The bed of the lake is a yellowish sand, and the water is so transparent that a white object, such as 
an earthen plate, may be seen upon the bottom at a depth of nearly forty feet. The delicious salmon 
trout, that weigh from five to twenty pounds, silver trout, pike, pickerel, and perch are found here in great 
abundance, and afford fine sport and dainty food for the swarms of visitors at the Lake House during the 
summer season. 

^ The extent of the embankments and fosse of this fort was fourteen hundred feet, and the barracks were 
built of wood upon a strong foundation of lime-stone, which abounds in the neighborhood. This plan is 
copied from a curious old picture by Blodget, called a " Prospective Plan of the Battles near Lake George, 
1755." 




Fort William Henry.' 



OFTHEREVOLUTION. 109 



Battle of Lake George, and Death of Dieskau. Weakness of British Commanders. The Six Nations. Hendrick's Rebuke. 

scythe. At the same moment a bomb-shell was thrown among them by a howitzer, while 
two field pieces showered upon them a quantity of grape-shot. The savage allies, and al- 
most as savage colonists, greatly terrified, broke and fled to the swamps in the'neighborhood. 
The regulars maintained their ground for some time, but, abandoned by their companions, 
and terribly galled by the steady fire from the breast-works, at length gave way, and Dies- 
kau attempted a retreat. Observing this, the English leaped over their breast-works and 
pursued them. The French were dispersed in all directions, and Dieskau, wounded and 
helpless, was found leaning upon the stump of a tree. As the provincial soldier' who dis- 
covered him approached, he put his hand in his pocket to draw out his watch as a bribe to 
allow him to escape. Supposing that he was feeling for a pocket pistol, the soldier gave 
him a severe wound in the hip with a musket-ball. He was carried into the English camp 
in a blanket and tenderly treated, and was soon afterward taken to Albany, then to New 
York, and finally to England, where he died from the effects of his wounds. Johnson was 
wounded at the commencement of the conflict in the fleshy part of his thigh, in which a 
musket-ball lodged, and the whole battle was directed for five consecutive hours by General 
Lyman, the second in command.'' 

Johnson's Indians, burning with a fierce desire to avenge the death of Hendrick, were 
eager to follow the retreating enemy ; and General Lyman proposed a vigorous continuation 
of efforts by attacking the French posts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, on Lake Cham- 
plain. But Johnson, either through fear, a love of ease, or some other inexplicable cause, 
withheld his consent, and the residue of the autumn was spent in erecting Fort William 
Henry. 

In the colonial wars, as well as in the war of our Revolution, the British government 
was often unfortunate in its choice of commanders. Total inaction, or, at best, great tardi- 
ness, frequently marked their administration of military afiuirs. They could not comprehend 
the elastic activity of the provincials, and were too proud to listen to their counsels. This 
tardiness and pride cost them many misfortunes, either by absolute defeat in battle, or the 
theft of glorious opportunities for victory through procrastination. Their shrewd savage 
allies saw and lamented this, and before the commissioners of the several colonies, who met 
at Albany in 1754 to consult upon a plan of colonial alliance, in which the Six Nations^ 
were invited to join, Hendrick administered a pointed rebuke to the governor and military 
commanders. The sachems were first addressed by James Delancy, then lieutenant-gov- 
ernor of New York ; and Hendrick, who was a principal speaker, in the course of a reply 
remarked, " Brethren, we have not as yet confirmed the peace with them (meaning the 
French-Indian allies). 'Tis your fault, brethren ; we are not strengthened by conquest, for 
we should have gone and taken Crown Point, but you hindered us. We had concluded to 
go and take it, but were told it was too late, that the ice would not bear us. Instead of 
this, you burned your own fort at Sar-ragh-to-gee [near old Fort Hardy], and ran away 
from it, which was a shame and a scandal to you. Look about your country, and see ; 
you have no fortifications about you — no, not even to this city. 'Tis but one step from 
Canada hither, and the French may easily come and turn you out of doors. 

" Brethren, you were desirous we should open our minds and our hearts to you : look at 

' This soldier is believed to have been General Seth Pomeroy, of Northampton, Massachusetts. — Ever- 
ett's Life of Stark. 

• ^ At this battle General Stark, the hero of Bennington, then a lieutenant in the corps of Rogers's Rangers, 
■^-as first initiated in the perils and excitements of regular warfare. 

^ The Six Nations consisted of -the tribes of the Mohaicks, Onondagas, Oncidas, Senecas, Cayugas, and 
Tuscaroras. The first five were a long time allied, and known as the Five Nations. They were joined 
by the Tuscaroras of North Carolina in 1714, and from that time the confederation was known by the title 
of the Six Nations. Their great council fire was in the special keeping of the Onondagas, by whom it 
was always kept burning. This confederacy was a terror to the other Indian tribes, and extended its con- 
quests even as far as South Carolina, where it waged war against, and nearly exterminated, the once pow- 
erful Catawbas. When, in 1744, the Six Nations ceded a portion of their lands to Virginia, they insisted 
on the continuance of a free war-path through the ceded territory. 



110 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 

Lord Loudon. Montcalm's first Attack on Fort William Henry. Perfidy and Cowardice of Webb. Vigilance of Stark. 

the French, they are men — they are fortifying every where ; but, we are ashamed to say it, 
you are like women, bare and open, without any fortifications.'" 

The head of Lake George was the theater of a terrible massacre in 1757. Lord Lou- 
don, a man of no energy of character, and totally deficient in the requisites for a military 
leader, was appointed that year governor of Virginia, and commander-in-chief of all the 
British forces in North America. A habit of procrastination, and his utter indecision, 
thwarted all his active intentions, if he ever had any, and, after wasting the whole season in 
getting here and preparing to do something, he was recalled by Pitt, then prime minister, 
who gave as a reason for appointing Lord Amherst in his place, that the minister never 
heard from him, and could not tell wluit he was doing.^ 

Opposed to him was the skillful and active French commander, the Marquis Montcalm, 
who succeeded Dieskau. Early in the spring he made an attempt to capture Fort William 
March 16 Henry. He passed up Lake George on St. Patrick's eve, landed stealthily behind 
i"5~- Long Point, and the next afternoon appeared suddenly before the fort. A part of 
the garrison made a vigorous defense, and Montcalm succeeded only in burning some build- 
ings and vessels which were out of reach of the guns at the fort.^ He returned to Ticon- 
deroga, at which post and at Crown Point he mustered all his forces, amounting to nine 
thousand men, including Canadians and Indians, and in July prepared for another attempt 
to capture Fort William Henry. 

General Webb, who was commander of the forces in that quarter, was at Fort Edward 
with four thousand men. He visited Fort William Henry under an escort of two hundred 
men commanded by Major Putnam, and while there he sent that officer with eighteen 
Rangers down the lake, to ascertain the position of the enemy on Champlain. They were 
discovered to be more numerous than was supposed, for the islands at the entrance of North- 
west Bay were swarming with French and Indians. Putnam returned, and begged Gen- 
eral Webb to let him go down with his Fk.angers in full force and attack them, but he was 
allowed only to make another reconnoissance, and bring ofl' two boats and their crews which 
he left fishing. The enemy gave chase in canoes, and at times nearly surrounded them, 
but they reached the fort in safety. 

Webb caused Putnam to administer an oath of secrecy to his Rangers respecting the 
proximity of the enemy, and then ordered him to escort him back immediately to Fort Ed- 
ward. This order was so repugnant to Putnam, both as to its perfidy and unsoldierly char- 
acter, that he ventured to remonstrate by saying, " I hope your excellency does not intend 
to neglect so fair an opportunity of giving battle should the enemy presume to land." Webb 
coolly and cowardly replied, " What do you think we should do here ?" The near approach 
of the enemy was cruelly concealed from the garrison, and under his escort the general re- 
turned to Fort Edward. The next day he sent Colonel Monroe with a regiment to re-en- 
force and to take command of the garrison at Lake George. 

Montcalm, with more than nine thousand men, and a powerful train of artillery, landed 

' Reported for the Gentlemen's Magazine, London, 1755. 

- This i.s as.serted by Dr. Franklin in his Autobio<Traphy (Sparks's Life, 219), where he gives an anec- 
dote illustrative of the character of Loudon. Franklin had occasion to go to his office in New York, where 
he met a Mr. Inni.*;, who had brought dispatches from Philadelphia from Governor Denny, and was await- 
ing his lordship's answer, promised the following day. A fortnight afterward he met Innis, and expressed 
his surprise at his speedy return. But he had not yet gone, and averred that he had called at Loudon's 
office every morning during the fortnight, but the letters were not yet ready. " Is it possible," said Frank- 
lin, " when he is so great a writer ? I see him constantly at his escritoire." '' Yes," said Innis, " but hs 
is like St. George on the signs, always on horseback, but never rides forward.''' 

^ The garrison and fort were saved by the vigilance of Lieutenant Stark, who, in the absence of Rogers, 
had command of the Rangers, a large portion of which were Irishmen. On the evening of the 16th he 
overheard some of these planning a celebration of St. Patrick's (the following day). He ordered the sutler 
not to issue spirituous liquors the next day without a written order. When applied to he pleaded a lame 
wrist as an excuse for not writing, and his Rangers were kept sober. The Irish in the regular regiments 
wot drunk, as u-sualon such an occasion. Montcalm anticipated this, and planned his attack on the night 
of St. Patrick's day. Stark, with his sober Rangers, gallantly defended and saved the fort. 



OF THE REVOLUTION. Ill 



Montcalm's second Attack on Fort William Henry. Surrender of the Garrison. Perfidy of the French and Indians. 

at the head of the lake, and beleaguered the garrison, consisting of less than three thousand 
men.' He sent in proposals to Monroe for a surrender of the fort, urging his humane desire 
to prevent the bloodshed which a stubborn resistance would assuredly cause. Monroe, con- 
fidently expecting re-enforcements from Webb, refused to listen to any such proposals. The 
French then commenced the siege, which lasted six consecutive days, without much slaugh- 
ter on either side. Expresses were frequently sent to General Webb in the mean while, 
imploring aid, but he remained inactive and indifierent in his camp at Fort Edward. Gen- 
eral Johnson was at last allowed to march, with Putnam and his Rangers, to the relief of 
the beleaguered garrison ; but when about three miles from Fort Edward, Webb recalled 
them, and sent a letter to Monroe, saying he could render him no assistance, and advising 
him to surrender. This letter was intercepted by Montcalm, and gave him great joy, for 
he had been informed by some Indians of the movements of the provincials under Johnson 
and Putnam, who represented them to be as numerous as the leaves on the trees. Alarmed 
at this, Montcalm was beginning to suspend the operations of the siege preparatory to a re- 
treat, when the letter from the pusillanimous Webb fell into his hands. He at once sent it 
in to Monroe, with proposals for an immediate surrender. 

Monroe saw that his case was hopeless, for two of his cannon had bursted, and his ammu- 
nition and stores were nearly exhausted. Articles of capitulation were agreed upon, and, 
under promise of protection, the garrison marched out of the fort preparatory to being es- 
corted to Fort Edward.^ 

The savages, two thousand warriors in number, were enraged at the terms of capitula- 
tion, for they were induced to serve in this expedition by a promise of plunder.^. This was 
denied them, and they felt at liberty to throw off all restraint. As soon as the last man 
left the gate of the fort, they raised the hideous war-whoop, and fell upon the English with 
the fury of demons. The massacre was indiscriminate and terrible, and the French were 
idle spectators of the perfidy of their allies. They refused interference, withheld the prom- 
ised escort, and the savages pursued the poor Britons with great slaughter, half way to 
Fort Edward.* Fifteen hundred of them were butchered or carried into hopeless captivity. 
Montcalm utterly disclaimed all connivance, and declared his inability to prevent the mas- 
sacre without ordering his men to fire upon the Indians. But it left a deep stain upon his 
otherwise humane character, and the indignation excited by the event aroused the English 
colonists to more united and vigorous action. 

Montcalm burned and otherwise destroyed every tlaing connected with the forti- August 9, 
fication. Major Putnam, who had been sent with his Rangers from Fort Edward ^^^^• 
to watch the movements of Montcalm, reached Lake George just as the rear of the enemy 
left the shore, and truly awful was the scene there presented, as described by himself : " The 
fort was entirely demolished ; the barracks, out-houses, and buildings were a heap of ruins ; 
the cannon, stores, boats, and vessels were all carried away. The fires were still burning, 
the smoke and stench offensive and sufibcating. Innumerable fragments, human skulls and 
bones, and carcasses half consumed, were still frying and broiling in the decaying fires. 

^ The place where Montcalm landed is a little north of the Lake House, at Caldwell, and about a mile 
from the site of the fort. 

^ It was stipulated, 1st. That the garrison should march out with their arms and baggage ; 2d. Should 
be escorted to Fort Edward by a detachment of French troops, and should not serve against the French for 
a term of eighteen months ; 3d. The works and all the warlike stores should be delivered to the French ; 
4th. That the sick and wounded of the garrison should remain under the protection of Montcalm, and should 
be permitted to return as soon as they were recovered. 

^ Dr. Belknap. 

* The defile through which the English retreated, and in which so many were slaughtered, is called the 
Bloody Defile. It is a deep gorge between the road from Glenn's Falls to Lake George and the high range 
of hills northward, called the French Mountain. In excavations for the plank road near the defile a large 
number of skeletons were exhumed. I saw the skull of one, which was of an enormous size, at least one 
third larger than any other human head I ever saw. The occipital portion exhibited a long fracture, evi- 
dently made by a tomahawk. 



1 12 



PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 



Destruction of Fort William Henry. 



Brilliant Expedition under Abercrombie. 



Visit to the Ruins 6f Fort George. 



Dead bodies, mangled with scalping-knives and tomahawks in all the wantonness of Indian 
fierceness and barbarity, were every where to be seen. More than one hundred women, 
butchered and shockingly mangled, lay upon the ground, still weltering in their gore. Dev- 
astation, barbarity, and horror every where appeared, and the spectacle presented was too 
diabolical and awful either to be endured or described." 

Fort William Henry was never rebuilt. Upon an eminence about a mile southeast of it, 
and half a mile from the lake. Fort George was erected, but it was never a scene of very 
stirrino- events. A little south of Fort George was a small fortification called Fort Gage, 
so named in honor of General Gage, who served under Lord Amherst, and succeeded him in 
the command of the forces in America in 1760, and was Governor of Massachusetts when 
the Revolution broke out. Hardly a vestige of this fort can now be seen. 

The English, under General Abercrombie and the young Lord Howe, quartered at Fort 
Georo-e in 1758, preparatory to an attack upon the French posts upon Lake Champlain. 
Seven thousand regulars and nine thousand provincial troops were there assembled, with a 
fine train of artillery and all necessary military stores, the largest and best-appointed army 
yet seen in America. On the 5th of July they embarked on Lake George, on board nine 
hundred bateaux and one hundred and thirty-five whale-boats, and the next day landed at 
the foot of the lake and pushed on toward Ticonderoga. Of the events which befell them 
there I shall hereafter write. Let us glance a moment at the present. 

Toward evening the rain abated, and, accompanied by an old resident shoemaker as guide, 
I made a visit to the remains of the two English forts. The elder one (Fort William Henry) 
stood directly upon the lake shore, on the west side of a clear mountain stream called West 
Creek, the main inlet of Lake George. Nothing of it now remains but a few mounds and 
shallow ditches, so leveled and filled that the form of the works can not be distinctly traced. 
The road along the lake shore passes across the northeast and northwest angles, but the feat- 
ures of the past are hardly tangible enough to attract the attention of a passer-by. A little 
southwest of the fort, at the base of Rattlesnake or Prospect Hill, is a level clearing called 
the French Field. It is the place where Dieskau halted and disposed his troops for action. 
Many of the slain were buried there ; and I saw a rough-hewn stone at the head of a grave, 
upon which was inscribed, in rude characters, "Jacques Cortois, 1755." 

Fort George, the remains of which are scattered over several acres, was situated about a 
mile southeast from William Henry, upon an eminence gently sloping back from the lake. 
The dark limestone or black marble, such as is found at Glenn's Falls, here every where 
approaching near the surface or protruding above, formed a solid foundation, and supplied 
ample materials for a fortress. A quadrangular citadel, or sort of castle, was built within 
the lines of breast-works, and the ruins of this constitute all that is left of the old fort. I 
observed vestiges of the foundations of the barracks and other buildings ; and the quarries 
whence materials were taken for the buildings and ramparts seem almost as fresh as if just 
opened. The wall of the citadel, on the east- 
ern side (the left of the picture), is now about 
twenty feet high. Within the ancient area 
of the fort there is just sufficient earth to nour- 
ish a thick growth of dark juniper bushes, 
which, with the black rocks and crumbling 
masonry, presented a somber aspect. Both 
forts commaiided a fine view of the lake for 
ten miles north. 

The indications of fair weather which lured 
me out suddenly disappeared, and before I 
reached the Lake House the heavy clouds 
that came rolling up from the south poured 
down their contents copiously. Dark masses 
of vapor hovered upon the mountains that begirt the lake, and about sunset the tops of all 




Ruins of the Citadel of Fobt George. 



OF THE REVOLUTION. 



113 



Storm upon Lake George. 



Arrivals from Ticonderoga. 



Departure from Caldwell. 



were buried in the driving mists. We seemed to be completely shut up within mighty 
prison walls, and early in the evening vivid lightning and heavy thunder-peals contributed 
to produce a scene of singular grandeur and awe. In the midst of the elemental strife the 
steam-boat arrived with passengers from Ticonderoga, and those pleasure seekers who came 
in her, bedraggled and weary, were capital studies for an artistic Jeremiah in search of lam- 
entations personified. But an excellent supper, in dry quarters, soon brought the sunshine 
of gladness to every face, and before ten o'clock more than half the new-comers were among 
the livehest in quadrille, cotillion, M'altz, or gallopade. 

I arose the next morning at four. The scene from my chamber window was one of quiet 
beauty. The sky was cloudless, and the lake, without a ripple, was spread out before me, 

" A glorious mirror of the Almighty's form." 

The east was all glowing with the soft radiance of approaching sunlight, giving a deeper 
gray to the lofty hills that intervened, and every tree was musical with the morning song 
of the birds. 

" The south wind was like a gentle friend, 

Parting the hair so softly on my brow. 

It had come o'er the gardens, and the flowers 

That kissed it were betrayed ; for as it parted 

With its invisible fingers my loose hair, 

I knew it had been trifling with the rose 

And stooping to the violet. There is joy 

For all God's creatures in it." 

Willis. 





From the piazza of the Lake 
House, fronting the water, a compre- 
hensive view of the historic grounds 
in the vicinage may be seen, as delin- 
eated in the picture. In the extreme 
distance on the left is the ransfe of the 
French Mountain, and on the right 
is Rattlesnake Hill (one thousand 
five hundred feet high), with other lofty elevations, heavily wooded to 
their very summits. By the trees on the shore, in the center of the 
picture, is the site of Fort William Henry ; and further on the left, and 
directly over the flag-staff, is the site of Fort George. 

We left this fine summer resort in the steam-boat William Caldwell, 
at eight in the morning. The air was clear and cool, the company agree- 
able, aS>I the voyage down the lake delightful. The mountain shores, the deep bays, and 
the nurtierous islands (said to be three hundred and sixty-five, the number of days in the 
year) present a constant variety, and all that the eye takes in on every side is one vision of 
beauty. I procured a seat in the pilot's room aloft, whence I had a broad view of the whole 
ever-changing panorama of the lake in the course of the voyage. 

The first island which we passed, of any considerable size, was Diamond Island,' lying 

' This name was given it on account of the number and beauty of the quartz crystals which are found 
upon it. In shape and brilliancy they resemble pure diamonds. 




H 



\ 



1 14 



PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 



Diamond Island. 



Successful Expedition under Colonel Brown. 



Long Point, Dome Island, and the Narrows. 



directly in front of Dunham's Bay. Here was a depot of military stores for Burgoyne's 
army in 1777, and the scene of a sharp conflict between the small garrison that defended 
it and a detachment of Americans under Colonel Brown. Between the actions of the 1 9th 
of September and 7th of October at Bemis's Heights, General Lincoln, with a body of New 
England militia, got in the rear of Burgoyne near Lake Champlain. He sent Colonel Brown 
with a strong division to attempt the recapture of Ticonderoga and the posts in the vicinity, 
and thus to cut off the retreat of the British as well as their supplies. It was a service 
September 25 exactly Suited to Brown's active and energetic character, and, by a rapid and 
^^^^- stealthy movement on a stormy night, he surprised and captured all the Brit- 

ish outposts between the landing-place at the north end of Lake George and the main for- 
tress at Ticonderoga. Mount Hope, Mount Defiance, the French lines, and a block-house, 
with an armed sloop, two hundred bateaux, and several gun-boats, fell into his hands. He 
also captured two hundred and ninety-three prisoners, and released one hundred Americans ; 
and, amono- other things, he retook the old Continental standard which St. Clair left at Ti- 
conderoga when he evacuated that post. He then attacked the fortress, but its walls were 
impregnable, and he withdrew. 

Flushed with success, Colonel Brown determined to sweep Lake George, and in the ves- 
sels they had captured the Americans proceeded to Diamond Island. The little garrison 
there made a vigorous resistance, and the republicans were repulsed with some loss. They 
then pushed for the shore on the south side of Dunham's Bay, where they burned all the 
vessels they had captured, and returned to Lincoln's camp. 

A little north of Diamond Island is Long Island, which lies directly in front of Long 




Long Point and Vicinitv.' 

Point, a narrow, fertile strip of land that projects far into the lake from the eastern shore. 
The estuary between the north side of the point and the mountains is Harris's Bay, the 
place where Montcalm moored his bateaux and landed on the 16th of March, 1757. 

About twelve miles from Caldwell, in the center of the lake, is Dome Island, which, at 
the distance of two or three miles, has the appearance of the upper portion of a large dome, 
with an arch as regular as if made by art. This island was the shelter for Putnam's men 
whom he left in the two boats while he informed General Webb of the presence of the French 
and Indians upon the two islands near the entrance of Northwest Bay, and nearly in front 
of the landing-place at Bolton, on the western shore. 

Shelving Rock, a lofty cliff on the eastern shore, and Tongue Mountain, a bold, rocky 
promontory on the west, flank the entrance to the Narrows, where the islands are so numer- 
ous, varying in size from a few rods to an acre, that there is only a very narrow channel for 
a steam-boat to pass through. A little north of Shelving Rock is the Black Mountain, its 
summit twenty-two hundred feet high, thickly covered with the dark spruce, and its sides 
robed with the cedar, fir, pine, and tamarac. There the wild deer, the bear, and the cata- 
mount have free range, for the hunter seldom toils up its weary ascent. 



' This little sketch was taken from the steam-boat, near the south end of Long Island, which appears in 
the foreground. Long Point is seen in the center, and on the right are Dunham's Bay and the northern 
extremity of the French Mountain. The highest peak on the left is Deer Pasture, or Buck Mountain. 



OF THE REVOLUTION. 



1 15 



Sabbath Day Point. 



Skirmish in 1756. 



Halt of Abercrombie's Army. Splendid Appearance of the Armament. 




Sabbath Dav Point. 



A few miles beyond the entrance to the Narrows, on the western shore, is another fertile 

strip of land projecting into the lake, called Sab- 
bath Day Point. It is between three and four 
miles from the little village of Hague, in the 
midst of the most picturesque scenery imagina- 
ble. Here, in 1756, a small provincial force, 
pressed by a party of French and Indians, and 
unable to escape across the lake, made a des- 
perate resistance, and defeated the enemy with 
considerable slaughter. Here, in the summer of 1758, General Abercrombie, with his fine 
army, already noticed as having 
embarked in bateaux and whale- 
boats at the head of the lake, 
landed for refreshments. It was 
just at dark, on a sultry Saturday 
Julys, evening, when the troops 
1758. debarked and spread over 
the beautiful cape for a few hours' 
repose. The young Lord Howe, 
the well-beloved of both officers 
and soldiers, was there, and call- 
ed around him, in serious consul- 
tation, some of the bravest of the 
youthful partisans who accom- 
panied the expedition. Captain 
Stark (the Revolutionary gener- 
al) was invited to sup with him ; 
and long and anxious were the 
inquiries the young nobleman 
made respecting the fortress of 
Ticonderoga and its outposts, 
which they were about to assail, 
as if a presentiment of personal 
disaster possessed his mind. 

It was after midnight when 
the whole armament moved slow- 
ly down the lake, and it was late on the Sabbath morning before they reached the' landing- 
place at the foot of it.^ The scene exhibited by this strong and well-armed force of sixteen 
thousand men was very imposing. " The order of march," says Major Rogers, '• exhibited 
a splendid mihtary show." Howe, in a large boat, led the van of the flotilla. He was 
accompanied by a guard of Rangers and boatmen. The regular troops occupied the center 
and the provincials the wings. The sky was clear and starry, and not a breeze ruffled the 
dark waters as they slept quietly in the shadows of the mountains. Their oars were muf- 




Lake Gkokge and part of Lake Champlain.i 



' Explanation of the references : 1. Fort Ticonderofra. 2. Fort Howe. 3. Mount Defiance. 4. 
Mount Independence. 5. Village of Alexandria. 7. Black Point. 8. Juniper Island. 9. Anthony'.-^ 
Nose. 10. M'Donald's Bay. 11. Rogers's retreat on the ice to Fort William Henry. 12. Cook's Isl- 
ands. 13. Scotch Bonnet. 14. Odell Island. 15. Buck Mountain and Rattlesnake Dens. 16. Shelv- 
ing Rock. 17. Phelps's Point. 18. Long Point. 19. Long Island. 20. Dome Island. 21. Diamond 
Island. 22. Dunham's Bay. 23. Harris's Bay. 24. The route of Dieskau from Skenesborough to Fort 
William Henry. 

' It being early on Sunday morning when the army left the point, General Abercrombie named the place 
Sabbath Day Point. The little sketch here given was taken from the steam-boat, half a mile above, look- 
ing northeast. 



116 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 

.Skirmish at Sabbath Day Point, 1776. Rogers's Slide. Narrow Escape of Major Rogers. Prisoners' Island. 

fled ; and so silently did they move on in the darkness, that not a scout upon the hills ob- 
served them. Day dawned just as they "w^ere abreast of the Blue Mountain, four miles 
from the landing-place ; and the first intimation vi'hich the outposts of the enemy, stationed 
there, had of the approach of the English was the full blaze of red uniforms which burst 
upon their sight as the British army swept around a point and prepared to land. 

At Sabbath Day Point a party of American militia of Saratoga county had a severe bat- 
tle with Tories and Indians in 1776. Both were scouting parties, and came upon each 
other unexpectedly. The Americans repulsed the enemy, and killed and wounded about 
ibrty. There are now a few buildings upon the point, and the more peaceful heroism of 
the culturist, in conflict with the unkindness of nature, is beautifying and enriching it. 
On the western shore of the lake, three miles northward of the little village of Hague, is 

Rogers's Rock, or Rogers's Slide. The lake 

is here quite narrow, and huge masses of rocks, 

some a hundred feet high, are piled in wild 

confusion on every side. The whole height 

of Rogers's Rock is about four hundred feet, 

-trf^.- gl^fe^,, ^^ 3^^^ , > and the " slide," almost a smooth surface, with 

4^^^^%; ^1 itfiBl ii^ ii fltlfe^^'" ■ •'^ ^ descent on an angle of about twenty-five 

"Lafa^^fe, ^l^Hj^B^^^K^'f degrees from meridian, is two hundred feet. 

^gjU|j^^!^gr^U^'3^^^^Kl ^^^^^ This hill derives its name from the fact, that 

'*" '^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ' "-^ ^^^ s-- from its summit Major Rogers, commander of 

^"""^ — -^ ■^^^m,,E^^^s^M=!:^:^^^^^^~^^^^^ a corps of Rangers, escaped from Indian pur- 

, „ , suers. With a small party who w^ere recon- 

ROGERS S ROCK.1 . . . 

noitermg at the outlet of the lake, in the win- 
ter of 1758, he was surprised and put to flight by a band of Indians. He was equipped 
with snow-shoes, and eluded pursuit until he came to the summit of the mountain. Aware 
that they would follow his track, he descended to the top of the smooth rock, and, casting 
his knapsack and his haversack of provisions down upon the ice, slipped off his snow-shoes, 
and, without moving them, turned himself about and put them on his feet again. He then 
retreated along the southern brow of the rock several rods, and down a ravine he made his 
way safely to the lake below, snatched up his pack, and fled on the ice to Fort George. 
The Indians, in the mean while, coming to the spot, saw the two tracks, both apparently 
approaching the precipice, and concluded that two persons had cast themselves down the 
rock rather than fall into their hands. Just then they saw the bold leader of the Rangers 
making his way across the ice, and believing that he had slid down the steep face of the 
rock, considered him (as did the Indians Major Putnam at Fort Miller) under the special 
protection of the Great Spirit, and made no attempt at pursuit.'"' 

In consequence of a detention at Bolton, we did not reach the landing-place at the outlet 
of the lake until noon. Within a mile of the landing is a small island covered with shrub- 
bery, called Prisoners' Island, where the French, in the Seven Years' War, kept their En-; 
glish captives who were taken in that vicinity. The first party confined there easily esr 

' This sketch is from the lake, a little south of Cook's Point, seen just over the boat on the left. Imme- 
diatel}' beyond is seen the smooth rock. Nearly opposite the "slide" is Anthony's Nose, a high, rocky 
promontory, having the appearance of a human nose in shape when viewed from a particular point. 

^ Major Rogers was the son of an Irishman, who was an early settler of Dumbarton, in New Hampshire. 
He was appointed to the command of a party of Rangers in 1755, and with them did signal .service to the 
British cause. In 1759 he was sent by General Amherst from Crown Point to destroy the Indian village 
of St. Francis. He afterward served in the Cherokee war. In 1766 he was appointed governor of Miehilli- 
mackinac. He was accused of constructive treason, and was sent in irons to Montreal for trial. In 1769 
he went to England, was presented to the king, but soon afterward was imprisoned for debt. He returned 
to America, and in the Revolution took up arms for the king. In 1777 he returned to England, where he 
died. His name was on the proscription list of Tories included in the act of New Hampshire against them, 
in 1778. His journal of the French War, first published at London in 1765, was republished at Concord 
in 1831 



OFTHEREVOLUTION. 117 



Debarkation of British Troops. A pleasant traveling Companion. Trip from Lake George to Ticonderogn. 

caped, in consequence of the carelessness of the victors in not ascertaining the depth of the 
water, which on one side is fordable. A small guard was left in charge of them, and, as 
soon as the main body of the French had retreated, the English prisoners ivaded from the 
island and escaped. 

Directly west of this island is Howe's Landing, the place where Lord Howe with the 
van-guard of Abercrombie's army first landed, the outlet, a mile below, being in possession 
of the enemy. The whole British force debarked here on the morning after leaving Sab- 
bath Day Point, and before noon the Rangers luider Rogers and Stark were pushing j^, g 
forward toward Ticonderoga, as a flank or advance-guard to clear the woods, while '^'^^■ 
the main army pressed onward. 

The distance from the steam-boat landing to Fort Ticonderoga is four miles. We found 
vehicles in abundance awaiting our arrival, and prepared to carry passengers with all their 
baggage, from a clean dickey only to a four-feet trunk, for twenty-five cents each. I suc- 
ceeded in securing my favorite seat on a pleasant day, the coachman's perch. At the Lake 
House we became acquainted with a young lady from the vicinity of the lofty Catskills, 
whose love of travel and appreciation of nature made her an enthusiast, and one of the most 
agreeable companions imaginable. She fairly reveled in the beauties of Lake George, not 
exhibited in the simpering lip-sentimentality, borrowed from the novelist, which so often 
annoys the sensible man when in the midst of mere fashionable tourists, but in hearty, in- 
telligent, and soul-stirring emotions of pleasure, which lie far deeper in the heart than mor- 
tal influence can fathom, and which gleam out in every lineament of the face. While others 
were afraid of spoiling their complexions in the sun, or of crumpling their smooth dresses or 
fine bonnets, she bade defiance to dust and crowds, for her brown linen " sack," with its 
capacious pockets for a guide-book and other accessories, and her plain sun-bonnet gave her 
no uneasiness ; and her merry laughter, which awoke ringing echoes along the hills as she, 
too, mounted the coachman's seat to enjoy the fresh air and pleasant landscape, was the 
very soul of pleasure. We rambled with herself and brother that afternoon over the ruins 
of Ticonderoga, and at evening parted company. We hope her voyage of life may be as 
pleasant and joyous as those few hours which she spent that day, where, 

"In the deepest core 
Of the free wilderness, a crystal sheet 
Expands its mirror to the trees that crowd 
Its mountain borders." 

The road from the foot of Lake George to Fort " Ty" is hilly, but the varied scenery 
makes the ride a pleasant one. We crossed the outlet of the lake twice ; first at the Upper 
Falls, where stands the dilapidated village of Alexandria, its industrial energies weighed 
down, I was told, by the narrow policy of a " lord of the manor" residing in London, who 
owns the fee of all the land and of the water privileges, and will not sell, or give long leases. 
The good people of the place pray for his life to be a short and a happy one — a very gener- 
ous supplication. From the high ground near the village a fine prospect opeired on the east- 
ward ; and suddenly, as if a curtain had been removed, the cultivated farms and pleasant 
villages of Vermont along the lake shore, and the blue line of the Green Mountains in the 
far distance, were spread out before us. 

The second or Lower Falls is half way between the two lakes, and here the thriving vil- 
lage of Ticonderoga is situated. A bridge and a saw-mill were there many years before the 
Revolution ; and this is the spot where Lord Howe, at the head of his column, crossed the 
stream and pushed forward through the woods toward the French lines, a mile and a quarter 
beyond. We arrived at the Pavilion near the fort at one o'clock, dined, and with a small 
party set ofi' immediately to view the interesting ruins of one of the most noted fortresses in 
America. Before noticing its present condition and appearance, let us glance at its past 
history. 

Ticonderoga is a corruption of Cheonderoga, an Iroquois word, signifying Sounding iva- 



1 18 



PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 



Topography of Ticonderoga. 



The Fortress. 



Its Investment by Abercrombie. 



Bravery of Lord Howe. 




Ground Plan. 



ters, and was applied by the Indians to the rushing waters of the outlet of Lake George at 
the falls. The French, who first built a fort at Crown Point (Fort St. Frederic), estab- 
lished themselves upon this peninsula in 1755, and the next year they began the erection 
of a strong fortress, which they called Fort Carillon.^ The Indian name was generally 
applied to it, and by that only was it known from 
the close of the French and Indian war in 1763." 

The peninsula" is elevated more than one hund- 
red feet above the lake, and contains about five 
hundred acres. Nature and art made it a strong 
pla-ce. Water was upon three sides, and a deep 
swamp extended nearly across the fourth. Within 
a mile north of the fortress intrenchments were 
thrown up, the remains of which may still be seen 
at each side of the road, and are known as the 
French lines. The whole defenses were completed 
by the erection of a breast- work nine feet high, upon 
the narrowest part of the neck between the swamp 
and the outlet of Lake George ; and before the 
breast-work was a strong abatis. 

Here, as I have already mentioned, was the 
general rendezvous of the French under Montcalm, 

preparatory to the attack on Fort William Henry. It continued to be the head- 
quarters of that general until Quebec was threatened by an expedition under Wolfe, 
up the St. Lawrence, when he abandoned the posts on Lake Champlain, and mustered 
all his forces at the capital of Lower Canada. 

Montcalm commanded a force of four thousand men at Ticonderoga when Abercrombie 
approached, and was in daily expectation of receiving a re-enforcement of three thou- 
sand troops under M. de Levi. The English commander was advised of this ex- 
pected re-enforcement of the garrison, and felt the necessity of making an immediate attack 
upon the works. His army moved forward in three columns ; but so dense was the forest 
that covered the whole country, that their progress was slow. They were also deficient in 
suitable guides, and in a short time were thrown into a great deal of confusion. They pressed 
steadily forward, and the advanced post of the French (a breast- work of logs) was set fire to 
by the enemy themselves and abandoned. Lord Howe, who was Abercrombie's lieutenant, 
or second in command, led the advanced column ; and as they pressed onward after crossing 
the bridge. Major Putnam, with about one hundred men, advanced as a scouting party to 
reconnoiter. Lord Howe, eager to make the first attack, proposed to accompany Putnam, 
but the major tried to dissuade him, by saying, " My lord, if I am killed the loss of my life 
will be of little consequence, but the preservation of yours is of infinite importance to this 
army." The answer was, " Putnam, your life is as dear to you as mine is to me. I am 
determined to go."^ They dashed on through the woods, and in a few minutes fell in with 
the advanced guard of the French, who had retreated from the first breast-works, and, with- 
out a guide and bewildered, were endeavoring to find their way back to the lines. A sharp 
skirmish ensued, and at the first fire Lord Howe, another ofl!icer, and several privates were 



August 3, 
1757. 



1759. 



July 6, 

1758. 



' This is a French word, signifying chime, jingling, noise, bawling, scolding, racket, clatter, riot. — 
Bnjer. Its application to this spot had the same reference to the rush of waters as the Indian name Che- 
onderoga. 

^ This fortress was strongly built. Its walls and barracks were of limestone, and every thing about it 
was done in the most substantial manner. 

Explanation of the ground plan : a, entrance and wicket gate ; b, counterscarp twenty feet wide ; c c, 
bastions ; d, under-ground room and ovens ; e e e e, barracks and officers' quarters ; /, court or parade- 
ground ; g g, trench or covert-way, sixteen feet wide and ten feet deep j h, the place where Ethan Allen 
and his men entered by a covert-way from the outside. 

* Humphrey's Life of Putnam. 



OF THE REVOLUTION. 119 



Fight with the French, and Death of Howe. Attacli on Ticonderoga, and Defeat of the English. Other Expeditions. 

killed.' The French were repulsed -with a loss of three hundred killed and one hundred 
and forty-eight taken prisoners. The English columns were so much broken, confused, and 
fatigued, that Abercrombie marched them back to the landing-place on Lake George, to 
bivouac for the night. Early the next morning Colonel Bradstreet advanced and took pos- 
session of the saw-mills, near the present village of Ticonderoga, which the enemy had 
abandoned. 

Abercrombie sent an engineer to reconnoiter, and on his reporting that the works were 
unfinished and might easily be taken, the British troops were again put in motion toward 
the fortress. As they approached the lines, the French, who were completely shel- j^, g 
tered behind their breast-works, opened a heavy discharge of artillery upon them, but i'^^*- 
they pressed steadily forward in the face of the storm, determined to assault the works, and 
endeavor to carry them by sword and bayonet. They found them so well defended by a 
deep abatis, that it was almost impossible to reach them ; yet, amid the galling fire of the 
enemy, the English continued for four hours striving to cut their way through the limbs and 
bushes to the breast-works with their swords. Some did, indeed, mount the parapet, but 
in a moment they were slain. Scores of Britons were mowed down at every discharge of 
cannon. Perceiving the rapid reduction of his army, Abercrombie at last sounded a retreat ; 
and, without being pursued by the French, the English fell back to their encampment at the 
foot of Lake George, from which the wounded were sent to Fort Edward and to Albany. 
The English loss was nearly two thousand men and twenty-five hundred stand of arms. 
Never did troops show bolder courage or more obstinate persistence against fearful obstacles. 
The whole army seemed emulous to excel, but the Scotch Highland regiment of Lord John 
Murray was foremost in the conflict, and suffered the severest loss. One half of the privates 
and twenty-five officers were slain on the spot or badly wounded. Failing in this attempt, 
Abercrombie changed his plans. He dispatched General Stanwix to build a fort near the 
head-waters of the Mohawk, at the site of the present village of Rome, Oneida county. 
Colonel Bradstreet, at his own urgent solicitation, was ordered, with three thousand troops, 
mostly provincials, to proceed by the way of Oswego and Lake Ontario, to attack Fort Fron- 
tenac, where Kingston, in Upper Canada, now stands ; and himself, with the rest of the 
army, returned to Albany.'' 

While misfortunes were attending the English under the immediate command of Aber- 
crombie, and the power and influence of the French were gaining strength on the lake, a 
British force was closely beleaguering Louisburg, on the Island of Cape Breton, at the mouth 
of the St. Lawrence, then the strongest fortification in America, and the rallying point 
of French power on tlus Continent. Early in 1758 Admiral Boscawen sailed from 

' George, Lord-viscount Howe, was the eldest son of Sir E. Scrope, second Viscount Howe in Ireland. 
He commanded five thousand British troops which landed at Halifax in 1757, and, as we have seen, the 
next year accompanied General Abercrombie against Ticonderoga. Alluding to his death, Mante ob- 
serves, " With him the soul of the army seemed to expire." He was the idol of his soldiers, and, in order 
to accommodate himself and his regiment to the nature of the service, he cut his hair short, and fashioned 
his clothes for activity. His troops followed his example, and they were, indeed, the soul of Abercrombie's 
army. He was in the thirty-fourth year of his age when he fell. The General Court of Massachusetts 
Bay, as a testimony of respect for his character, appropriated two hundred and fifty pounds sterling for the 
erection of a monument in Westminster Abbey. 

Captain (afterward general) Philip Schuyler, who was highly esteemed by Lord Howe, and who at that 
time was employed in the commissary department, was commissioned to carry the young nobleman's re- 
mains to Albany and bury them with appropriate honors. They were placed in a vault, and I was in- 
formed by a daughter of General Schuyler (Mrs. Cochran, of Oswego) that when, many years afterward, 
the coffin was opened, his hair had grown to long, flowing locks, and was very beautiful. 

■^ General James Abercrombie was descended from a wealthy Scotch family, and, in consequence of 
signal services on the Continent, was promoted to the rank of major general. In 1758 fifty thousand troops 
were placed under his command by Mr. Pitt, and sent with him to America to attempt a recovery of all 
that the French had taken from the English. He was the successor of Lord Loudon, but was not much 
superior to the earl in activity or military skill. He was superseded by Amherst after his defeat at Ticon- 
deroga, and in the spring of 1759 he returned to England. 



120 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 

Siege and Capture of Loiiisburg. Preparations for the Conquest of Canada. Capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. 

Halifax, Acadia,' with forty armed vessels, bearing a land force of twelve thousand men 
under General Amherst. General Wolfe was second in command ; and in appointing that 
young soldier to a post so important, Pitt showed that sagacity in correctly appreciating 
character for which he was so remarkable. 

On the 2d of June the fleet anchored in Gabarus Bay, and the whole armament reached 
the shore on the 8th. The French, alarmed at such a formidable force, called in their out- 
posts, dismantled the royal battery, and prepared for a retreat. But the vigilance and act- 
ivity of Wolfe prevented their escape. He passed around the Northeast Harbor, 
and erected a battery at the North Cape, from which well-directed shots soon si- 
lenced the guns of the smaller batteries upon the island. Hot shots were also poured 
into the small fleet of French vessels lying in the harbor of Louisburg, and three 
of them were burned. The town was greatly shattered by the active artillery ; the vessels 
which were not consumed were dismantled or sunken ; and several breaches were 
"^'' ■ made in the massive walls. Certain destruction awaited the garrison and citizens, 
and at last the fortress, together with the town and St. John's (now Prince Ed- 
" ^ ■ ward's) Island, was surrendered into the hands of the English by capitulation. 

The skill, bravery, and activity of General Amherst, exhibited in the capture of Louis- 
burg, gained him a vote of thanks from Parliament, and commended him to Pitt, who, the 
next year, appointed him to the chief command in America, in place of the less active Aber- 
crombie. So much did Pitt rely upon his judgment and ability, that he clothed him with 
discretionary powers to take measures to make the complete conquest of all Canada in a 
single campaign. His plans were arranged upon a magnificent scale. Appreciating the 
services of Wolfe, one expedition was placed under his command, to ascend the St. Lawrence 
and attack Quebec. General Prideaux was sent with another expedition to capture the 
strong-hold of Niagara, while Amherst himself took personal command of a third expedition 
against the fortress on Lake Champlain. It was arranged for the three armies to form a 
junction as conquerors at Quebec. Prideaux, after capturing the fort at Niagara, was to 
proceed down the lake and St. Lawrence to attack Montreal and the posts below, and Am- 
herst was to push forward after the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, down the 
Richelieu or Sorel River to the St. Lawrence, and join with Wolfe at Quebec. 

Amherst collected about eleven thousand men at Fort Edward and its vicinity, and, 
.moving cautiously along Lake Champlain, crossed the outlet of Lake George, and appeared 
before Ticonderoga on the 26th of July. He met with no impediments by the way, 
and at once made preparations for reducing the fortress by a regular siege. The gar- 
rison were strong, and evinced a disposition to make a vigorous resistance. They soon dis- 
covered, however, that they had not Abercrombie to deal with, and, despairing of being 
able to hold out against the advancing English, they dismantled and abandoned the fort, 
and fled to Crown Point. Not a gun was fired or a sword crossed ; and the next day Am- 
herst marched in and took possession of the fort. He at once set about repairing and en- 
lai-ging it, and also arranging an expedition against the enemy at Crown Point, when, to 
his astonishment, he learned from his scouts that they had abandoned that post also, and 
fled down the lake to Isle Aux Noix in the Richelieu or Sorel. Of his operations in that 
direction I shall hereafter write. 

' Acadia was the ancient name of the whole country now comprehended within the boundaries of Nova 
Scotia, or New Scotland. 



OF THE REVOLUTION. 



121 



Ticonderoga and its Associations. 



Visit to the Ruins of the Fort. 



A living Soldier of the Revolution. 



CHAPTEPv VI. 

I'm not romantic, but, upon my word, 

There are some moments when one can't, help feeling 
As if his heart's chords were so strongly stirred 

By things around him, that 'tis vain concealing 
A little music in his soul still lingers, 
Whene'er the keys are touched by Nature's fingers." 

C. F. Hoffman. 




ATURE always finds a chord of sympathy in the human heart harmoni- 
ously respondent to her own sweet music ; and when her mute but elo- 
quent language weaves in with its teachings associations of the past, or 
when, in the midst of her beauties, some crumbling monument of history 
stands hoary and oracular, stoicism loses its potency, and the bosom of 
the veriest churl is opened to the genial warmth of the sun of sentiment. 
Broken arches and ruined ramparts are always eloquent and suggestive 
of valiant deeds, even where their special teachings are not comprehend- 
ed ; but manifold greater are the impressions which they make when the 
patriotism we adore has hallowed them. To impressions like these the American heart is 
plastic while tarrying among the ruins of Ticonderoga, for there the first trophy of our war 
for independence was won, and there a soldier of the British realm first stooped a prisoner 
to the aroused colonists, driven to rebellion by unnatural oppression. 

A glimpse from the coach, of the gray old ruins of the fortress of " Ty," as we neared the 
Pavilion, made us impatient as children to be among them. Our own curiosity was shared 
by a few others, and a small party of us left early and ascended the breast-works, over scat- 
tered fragments of the walls, and eagerly sought out the most interesting localities, by the aid 
of a small plan of the fort which I had copied for the occasion. Without a competent guide, 
our identifications were not very reliable, and our opinions were as numerous and diverse as 
the members of our party. We were about to send to the Pavilion for a guide and umpire, 
when a venerable, white-haired man, supported by a rude staff, and bearing the insignia of 
the " Order of Poverty," came out from the ruins of the northern line of barracks, and offered 
his services in elucidating the confused subject before us. He was kind and intelligent, and 
I lingered with him among the ruins long after the rest of the party had left, and listened 
with pleasure and profit to the relation of his personal experience, and of his familiar knowl- 
edge of the scene around us. 

Isaac Rice was the name of our octogenarian guide, whose form and features, presented upon 
the next page, I sketched for preservation.' Like scores of those who fought our battles for 
freedom, and lived the allotted term of human life, he is left in his evening twilight to depend 
upon the cold friendship of the world for sustenance, and to feel the practical ingratitude of a 
people reveling in the enjoyment which his privations in early manhood contributed to secure, 
He performed garrison duty at Ticonderoga under St. Clair, was in the field at Saratoga 
in 1777, and served a regular term in the army ; but, in consequence of some lack of doc- 

' Mr. Rice sat down in the cool shadow of the gable of the western line of barracks while I sketched his 
person and the scenery in the distance. He is leaning against the wall, within a few feet of the entrance 
of the covert-way to the parade-ground, through which Allen and his men penetrated. In the middle 
ground is seen the wall of the ramparts, and beyond is the lake sweeping around the western extremity of 
Mount Independence, on the left beyond the steam-boat. For a correct apprehension of the relative posi- 
tion of Mount Independence to Ticonderoga, the reader is referred to the map, ante page 115. 



1 22 



PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 



Isaac Rice. 



Position of Affairs in the Colonies at the beginning of 1775. 



Secret Agent sent to Canada. 










fmr^ 



uments or some technical error, he lost his legal title to a pension, and at eighty-five years 
of age that feeble old 
soldier was obtaining a 
precarious support for 
himself from the free- 
will offerings of visitors 
to the ruins of the for- 
tress where he was gar- 
risoned when it stood in 
the pride of its strength, 
before Burgoyne scaled 
the heights of Mount 
Defiance. He is now 
alone, his family and 
kindred having all gone 
down into the grave. 
His elder brother, and 
the last of his race, who 
died in 1838, was one 
of the little band who, 
under Colonel Ethan 
Allen, surprised and 
captured Fort Ticon- 
deroga in the spring of 
1775. We will con- 
sider that, event and 
its consequences before 
further examining the 
old ruins around us. 

The contempt with 
which the loyal and 
respectful addresses of 
the first Continental 
Congress of 1774 were treated by the 
British ministry and a majority in Par- 
liament ; the harsh measures adopted by 
the government early in 1775, to coerce 
the colonists into submission, and the 
methodical tyranny of General Gage 
to arms was inevitable 




i^ 



WO" 



f#^rm^D^^>^^ 




i;^4^M 




;^y<^^ 



C^^l j^C^ 



o 






at Boston, and 
of other colo- 
nial govern- 
ors, convinced 
the Americans 



that an appeal 
They were convinced, also, that the province of Quebec, or Can- 
ada, would remain loyal,' and that there would be a place of rendezvous for British troops 
Avhen the colonies should unite in open and avowed rebellion. The strong fortresses of Ti- 
conderoga and Crown Point formed the key of all communication between New York and 
Canada, and the vigilant patriots of Massachusetts, then the very hot-bed of rebellion, early 
perceived the necessity of securing these posts the moment hostilities should commence. 
Early in March, Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren, members of the Committee of Corre- 
spondence of Boston, sent a secret agent into Canada to ascertain the opinions and temper 
of the people of that province concerning the great questions at issue and the momentous 



1 On the 26th of October, 1774, the Congress adopted an address to the people of Canada, recounting 
the grievances the American colonies suffered at the hands of the parent country, and including that province 
in the category of the oppressed, urging them to affiliate in a common resistance. But its Legislative As- 
sembly made no response, and Congress construed their silence into a negative. — Journals of Congress, i., 55. 



OF THE REVOLUTION. 12 



Report of the secret Agent. Plan formed in Connecticut to Capture Ticonderoga. Expedition under Ethan Allen. 

events then pending. After a diligent but cautious performance of his delicate task, the 
agent sent word to them from Montreal that the people were, at best, lukewarm, and ad- 
vised that, the moment hostilities commenced, Ticonderoga and its garrison should be seized. 
This advice was coupled with the positive assertion that the people of the New Hampshire 
Grants were ready to undertake the bold enterprise.' 

Within three weeks after this information was received by Adams and Warren, the bat- 
tle of Lexington occurred. The event aroused the whole country, and the patriots ^ jj jg 
flocked to the neighborhood of Boston from all quarters. The provincial Assembly '^'^^^ 
of Connecticut was then in session, and several of its members^ concerted and agreed upon 
a plan to seize the munitions of war at Ticonderoga, for the use of the army gathering at 
Cambridge and Roxbury. They appointed Edward Mott and Noah Phelps a committee 
to proceed to the frontier towns, ascertain the condition of the fort and the strength of the 
garrison, and, if they thought it expedient, to raise men and attempt the surprise and cap- 
ture of the post. One thousand dollars were advanced from the provincial treasury to pay 
the expenses of the expedition. 

The whole plan and proceedings were of a private character, without the public sanction 
of the Assembly, but with its full knowledge and tacit approbation. Mott and Phelps col- 
lected sixteen men as they passed through Connecticut ; and at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 
they laid their plans before Colonel Easton and John Brown (the latter was afterward the 
Colonel Brown whose exploits on Lake George have been noticed), who agreed to join them. 
Colonel Easton enlisted volunteers from his regiment of militia as he passed through the 
country, and about forty had been engaged when he reached Bennington. There Colonel 
Ethan Allen, a man of strong mind, vigorous frame, upright in all his ways, fearless in the 
discharge of his duty, and a zealous patriot, joined the expedition with his Green Mount- 
ain Boys, and the whole party, two hundred and seventy men, reached Castleton, fourteen 
miles east of Skenesborough, or Whitehall, at dusk on the 7th of May. A council of war 
was immediately held, and Allen was appointed commander of the expedition, Colonel 
James Easton, second in command, and Seth Warner, third. It was arranged that Allen 
and the principal officers, with the main body, should march to Shoreham, opposite Ticon- 
deroga ; that Captain Herrick, with thirty men, should push on to Skenesborough, and cap- 
ture the young Major Skene (son of the governor, who was then in England), confine his 
people, and, seizing all the boats they might find there, hasten to join Allen at Shoreham ; 

^ By the grant of Charles II. to his brother James, duke of York, the tract in America called New York 
was bounded on the east by the Connecticut River, while the charters of Massachusetts and Connecticut 
gave those provinces a westward extent to the " South Sea" or the Pacific Ocean. When, toward the 
middle of the last century, settlements began to be made westward of the Connecticut River, disputes 
arose, and the line between Connecticut and New York was finally drawn, by mutual agreement, twenty 
miles east of the Hudson. Massachusetts claimed a continuation of the Connecticut line as its western 
boundary, but New York contested the claim as interfering with prior grants to that colony. New Hamp- 
shire, lying north of Massachusetts, was not as yet disturbed by these disputes, for the country west of the 
Green Mountains was a wilderness, and had never been surveyed. When Benning Wentworth was made 
Governor of New Hampshire, he was authorized to issue patents for unimproved lands within his province, 
and in 1749 applications were made to him for grants beyond the mountains. He gave a patent that year 
for a township six miles square, having its western line twenty miles east of the Hudson, and in his honor 
it was named Bennington. The Governor and Council of New York remonstrated against this grant, yet 
Wentworth continued to issue patents ; and in 1754 fourteen townships of this kind were laid out and set- 
tlements commenced. During the French and Indian war settlements increased tardilj', but after the victory 
of Wolfe at Quebec numerous applications for grants were made ; and at the time of the peace, in 1763, 
one hundred and thirty-eight townships were surveyed west of the Connecticut River, and these were termed 
the New Hampshire Grants. The controversy between New York and the Grants became so violent that 
military organizations took place in the latter section to resist the civil power of New York, and about 
1772 the military thus enrolled were first called Green Mountain Boys ; among the most active and daring 
of whom were Ethan and Ira Allen and Remember Baker, men of whom I shall have occasion to speak 
Iiereafter. — See Sparks''s Life of Ethan Allen, and Thompson's Vermont, part ii. 

^ Among these were Silas Deane, David Wooster, Samuel H. Parsons, and Edward Stevens, all distin- 
guished men during the Revolution. 



124 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 



Expedition Rgainst Ticonderoga. Arnold joins Allen at Castleton. Dispute about Rank. Surprise of the Garrison. 

and that Captain Douglas should proceed to Panton, beyond Crown Point, and secure eveiy 
boat or bateau that should fall in his way. 

Benedict Arnold, who joined the army about this time, doubtless received a hint of this 

expedition before he left New Haven, for the moment he arrived at Cambridge with the 

company of which he was captain, he presented himself before the Committee of Safety, and 

proposed a similar expedition in the same direction. He made the thing appear so feasible, 

jkiay 3_ that the committee eagerly accepted his proposal, granted him a colonel's commission, 

^^^•*- and gave him the chief command of troops, not exceeding four hundred in number, 

which he might raise to accompany him on an expedition against the lake fortresses. Not 

doubting his success, Arnold was instructed to leave a sufficient garrison at Ticonderoga, 

and with the rest of the troops return to Cambridge with the arms and military stores that 

should fall into his possession. He was also supplied with one hundred pounds in cash, two 

hundred pounds weight each of gunpowder and leaden balls, one thousand flints, and ten 

horses, by the provincial Congress of Massachusetts. His instructions were to raise men in 

Western Massachusetts, but, on reaching Stockbridge, he was disappointed in finding that 

another expedition had anticipated him, and was on its way to the lake. He remained only 

long enough to engage a few officers and men to follow him, and then hastened onward and 

May 9, joined the other expedition at Castleton. He introduced himself to the officers, pulled 

■!''■''•'• a bit of parchment from his pocket, and, by virtue of what he averred was a superior 

commission, as it was from the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, claimed the supreme 

command. This was objected to, for he came single-handed, without officers or troops ; 

and the soldiers, a large proportion of whom were Green Mountain Boys, and who were 

much attached to Allen, declared that they would shoulder their muskets and march home 

rather than serve under any other leader. Arnold made a virtue of necessity, and united 

himself to the expedition as a volunteer, maintaining his rank, but having no command. 

The momentary interruption of Arnold produced no change in the plans, and Allen 
marched to the shore of the lake, opposite Ticonderoga, during the night. He applied to a 
farmer in Shoreham, named Beman, for a guide, who offered his son Nathan, a lad who 
passed a good deal of time within the fort, with the boys of the garrison, and was well ac- 
quainted with every secret way that led to or within the fortress.' But a serious difficulty 
now occurred. They had but a few boats, and none had been sent from Skenesborough or 
May 10, Panton. The day began to dawn, and only the officers and eighty-three men had 
i'^''^- crossed the lake. Delay was hazardous, for the garrison, if aroused, would make 
stout resistance. Allen, therefore, resolved not to wait for the rear division to cross, but to 
attack the fort at once. He drew up his men in three ranks upon the shore, directly in 
front of where the Pavilion now stands, and in a low but distinct tone briefly harangued 
them ; and then, placing himself at their head, with Arnold by his side, they marched quickly 
but stealthily up the height to the sally port. The sentinel snapped his fusee at the com- 
mander, but it missed fire, and he retreated within the fort under a covered way. The 
Americans followed close upon his heels, and were thus guided by the alarmed fugitive di- 
rectly to the parade within the barracks. There another sentinel made a thrust at Easton, 
but a blow upon the head from Allen's sword made him beg for quarter, and the patriots 
met with no further resistance. 

As the troops rushed into the parade under the covered way, .they gave a tremendous 
shout, and, filing off' into two divisions, formed a line of forty men each along the south- 
western and northeastern range of barracks. The aroused garrison leaped from their pal- 
lets, seized their arms, and rushed for the parade, but only to be made prisoners by the in- 
trepid New Englanders. At the same moment Allen, with young Beman at his elbow as 
guide, ascended the steps to the door of the quarters of Captain Delaplace, the commandant 



* He died in December, 1846, in Franklin county, New York, when nearly ninety years old. He had 
lived to see our confederacy increase from thirteen to thirty states, and from three millions of people to 
ttoenty millions. 



OF THE REVOLUTION. 125 

Interview between Allen and Delaplace. Allen's Order to surrender obeyed. Trouble with Arnold about command. 

of the garrison, and, giving three loud raps with the hilt of his sword, with a voice of pecu- 
liar power, ordered him to appear, or the whole garrison should be sacrificed. It was about 
four o'clock in the morning. The loud shout of the invaders had awakened the captain and 
his wife, both of whom sprang to the door just as Allen made his strange demand. Dela- 
place appeared in shirt and drawers, with the frightened face of his pretty wife peering over 
his shoulder. He and Allen had been old friends, and, upon recognition, the captain assumed 
boldness, and authoritatively demanded his disturber's errand. Allen pointed to his men 
and sternly exclaimed, " I order you instantly to surrender." " By what authority do you 
demand it ?" said Delaplace. " In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental 
Congress !"' thundered Allen, and, raising his sword over the head of the captain, who was 
about to speak, ordered him to be silent and surrender immediately. There was no alterna- 
tive. Delaplace had about as much respect for the " Continental Congress" as Allen had 
for "Jehovah," and they respectively relied upon and feared powder and ball more than 
either. In fact, the Continental Congress was but a shadow, for it did not meet for organi- 
zation until six hours afterward,'' and its " authority" was yet scarcely acknowledged even 
by the patriots in the field. But Delaplace ordered his troops to parade without arms, 
the garrison of forty-eight men were surrendered prisoners of war, and, with the women and 
children, were sent to Hartford, in Connecticut. The spoils were one hundred and twenty 
pieces of iron cannon, fifty swivels, two ten-inch mortars, one howitzer, one cohorn, ten tons^ 
of musket-balls, three cart-loads of flints, thirty new carriages, a considerable quantity of 
shells, a ware-house full of material for boat building, one hundred stand of small arms, ten 
casks of poor powder, two brass cannon, thirty barrels of flour, eighteen barrels of pork, and 
some beans and peas. 

Warner crossed the lake with the rear division, and marched up to the fort just after the 
surrender was made. As soon as the prisoners were secured, and all had breakfasted, he 
was sent off" with a detachment of men in boats to take Crown Point ; hut a strong head 
wind drove them back, and they slept that night at Ticonderoga. Another and successful 
attempt was made on the 12th, and both fortresses fell into the hands of the patriots with- 
out bloodshed. 

Arnold, who yielded his claims to supreme command at Castleton, assumed control the 
moment the fort was surrendered. But his orders were not heeded, and the Connecticut 
Committee,' of semi-official origin, which accompanied the expedition, interposed, formally 
installed Colonel Allen in the command of Ticonderoga and its dependencies, and authorized 
him to remain as such until the Connecticut Assembly or the Continental Congress should 
send him instructions. They affirmed that the government of Massachusetts had no part 
in the transaction ; that the men from Pittsfield were paid by Connecticut ; and that Aniold 
could be considered only as a volunteer. Finding his commands unheeded, and unwilling 
to allow personal considerations to affect, inimically, the public good, Arnold again yielded. 
He sent a written protest, with a statement of his grievances, to the Massachusetts Legis- 
lature. The Connecticut Committee also sent a statement to the same body. The appoint- 
ment of Allen was confirmed, and the Assembly of Massachusetts directed Arnold not to in- 
terfere. He soon afterward went down the lake to seize a British sloop of war at St. John's, 
and to seek other occasions where glory might be won in the service of his country. 

The capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point was an event wholly unlooked for by the 

* According to Mr. Rice, history has omitted the suffix to this demand, which in those days was consid- 
ered a necessary clincher to all solemn averments. It is characteristic of the man and the times. Rice's 
brother was within a few feet of Allen, and said he exclaimed, " In the name of the Great Jehovah and 
the Continental Congress, hy God." 

^ The second Continental Congress assembled at Philadelphia at ten o'clock that day (May 10th), and 
chose Peyton Randolph President, and Charles Thompson Secretary. 

^ One of the committee, Mr. Phelps, visited the fort, in disguise, the day before Allen and his men ar- 
rived. He pretended to be a countryman wishing to be shaved, and, while looking about for the garrison 
barber, observed every thing carefully, and saw the dilapidation of the walls and the laxity of duty and 
discipline, particularly as to sentinels. 



126 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 

Forbearance ot the Colonists. Consistent Course of their Delegates in Congress. Various Addresses of the second Congress. 

Continental Congress, then in session at Philadelphia, and many members were alarmed at 
the serious aspect of affairs at the east and north, for as yet the Americans had harbored no 
distinct thought or wish derogatory to the truest loyalty. They were aggrieved by the rulers 
and legislators of the parent country, and M^ere earnestly seeking redress. Ten years they 
had been petitioning the king and Parliament to exercise righteousness and equity toward 
them, but their prayers were unheeded and their warnings were scoffed at and answered by 
new oppressions. Yet the colonists remained loyal, and never breathed an aspiration for 
political independence. The colonial Assemblies, as well as the mass of the people, looked 
forward with anxiety for a reconciliation, for they felt proud of their connection with the 
British realm, whose government was then among the most powerful upon earth.' 

When the news of the capture of the forts on Champlain reached Congress, they recom- 
mended to the committees of New York and Albany to remove the cannon and stores to the 
south end of Lake George, and to erect a strong post at that place. They also directed an 
exact inventory of the cannon and military stores to be taken, " in order," as the dispatch 
said, " that they may be safely returned when the restoration of harmony between Great 
Britain and the colonies, so ardently desired by the latter, shall render it prudent and con- 
sistent with the over-ruling law of self-preservation."* 

The delegates to the first Continental Congress, who met in September of the pre- 
vious year, while they exhibited rare firmness of purpose in tone and manner, again 
and again avowed their loyalty, and made most humble petitions to the king and the Legis- 
lature for a redress of grievances. And those of the Congress in session when the first hos- 
tile movements on Lake Champlain occurred, while they saw clearly that nothing but a 
general resort to arms was now left for the colonists, resolved to make fresh appeals to the 
king and Parliament before taking decidedly offensive steps in acts of open hostility. They 
felt quite certain, however, that the haughtiness of power would not bend so long as its pride 
was wounded, and that it would never yield to an agreement for a reconciliation upon terms 
other than the absolute submission of the insurgents. Congress, therefore, correctly repre- 
senting the public sentiment, resolved to be, at the same time, free mett and loijal subjects 
as long as a link of consistency should bind those conditions in unity. They adopted an 
» May 29, addrcss to the inhabitants of Canada ;» a declaration, setting forth the causes and 
b July 6. the necessity for the colonies to take up arms ;b an humble petition to the king ;c 
d July 25 ^^ address to the Assembly of Jamaica ;d^ and an address to the people of Ire- 
e July 28. land.e* To the king they expressed their continued devotion to his person, and 
their deep regret that circumstances had in the least weakened their attachment to the 
crown. To the people of Great Britain they truthfully declared that their acts were wholly 
defensive ; that the charge which had been made against them, of seeking absolute independ- 
ence, was a malicious slander ; and that they had never, directly or indirectly, applied to a 
foreign power for countenance or aid in prosecuting a rebellion. They truly set forth that 
the rejection of their petitions and the accumulation of oppressive acts of Parliament were 
the causes that placed them in the attitude of resistance which they then assumed — an atti- 

^ The affections of the people of the colonies were very much alienated by the grievances of the Stamp 
jict in 1765, and kindred measures, yet they still had a strong attachment to the mother country, even 
when the Revolution finally broke out. Dr. Franklin's testimony in 1766 may be quoted as illustrative 
of the temper of the people nearly ten years later. In answer to the question concerning the feelings of 
the people of America toward Great Britain before the passage of the Stamp Act, he said, " They had not 
only a respect but an affection for Great Britain, for its laws, its customs, and its manners, and even a fond- 
ness for its fashions, that greatly increa.sed the commerce. Natives of Britain were always treated with 
particular regard ; and to be an Old Englandman was of itself a character of some respect, and gave a 
kind of rank among us." — Examination of Dr. Franklin before the British House of Commons relative to the 
Repeal of the American Stamp Act. 

2 Pitkin, i., 355. 

^ Jamaica, one of the West India Islands, was then a British colony, with a provincial Legislature like 
those on the American Continent. 

■* See Journals of Congress, i., p. 100-168. 



OF THE REVOLUTION. 



127 



Military Preparations made by Congress. 



The Continental Army. 



Spirit of the People. 



Ticonderoga. 



tude at once necessary and justifiable, and worthy of the free character of subjects of the Brit- 
ish realm. " While we revere," they said, "the memory of our gallant and virtuous ancestors, 
we never can surrender these glorious privileges for which they fought, bled, and conquered : 
your fleets and armies can destroy our towns and ravage our coasts ; these are inconsiderable 
objects — things of no moment to men whose bosoms glow with the ardor of liberty. We can 
retire beyond the reach of your navy, and, without any sensible diminution of the necessaries 
of life, enjoy a luxury which, from that period, you will want — the luxury of being free." 




Ticonderoga at Sunset. 

While petitions and addresses were in course of 
preparation and adoption. Congress proceeded to make 
extensive military arrangements. The militia of the 
t I -^'ij ■ various colonies, and such volunteers as could be ob- 
tained, were mustered into service under the title of the Conti- 
nental ARMY ; and the troops M'hich had flocked to the vicinity of Bos- 
ton from all parts of New England after the skirmishes at Lexington and 
Concord, a and were then investing that city, were adopted and enrolled under the 
same title. ^ Congress voted to issue bills of credit, or paper money, to the amount 1775 ' 
of three millions of dollars, for the pay of the army, and also took measures for the "°^' ^'^^' 
establishment of provisional Assemblies in the several colonies instead of the royal govern- 
ments ; for acts of Parliament, declaring the colonies in a state of rebellion, and providing 
for the destruction of the commerce of several sea-port towns, and for the sending of fleets 
and armies to enforce submission, were regarded by the Americans as virtual acknowledg- 
ments of the abdication of all power here.' Thus, while the colonists kept the door of rec- 
onciliation wide open, they prepared to maintain the righteous position which they had as- 
sumed at all hazards. 

Let us for a moment close the chronicles of the past, and consider one of the most inter- 
esting relics of the Revolution yet remaining — the ruins of Ticonderoga. I lingered with 
the old soldier among the fragments of the fortress until sunset ; and just as the luminary 



' See Parliamentary Rejrisler (1775), p 6-69. 



128 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK 

Present Appearance of Fort Ticonderoga and Vicinity. The Bakery. Grenadiers' Battery. 

went down behind Mount Defiance I made the preceding sketch, which may be relied upon 
as a faithful portraiture of the present features of Fort Ticonderoga. The view is from the 
remains of the counterscarp, near the southern range of barracks, looking northward. The 
barracks or quarters for the officers and soldiers were very substantially built of limestone, 
two stones high, and formed a quadrangle. The space within was the parade. Upon the 
good authority of his brother, our venerable guide pointed out the various localities of inter- 
est, and, having no doubt as to the correctness of his information, I shall accord it as truth.- 
The most distinct and best-preserved building seen in the sketch is the one in which the 
commandant of the garrison was asleep when Allen and his men entered the fort. On the 
left of the group of figures in the fore-ground is the passage leading from the covered way 
into the parade, through which the provincials passed. The two lines of forty men each 
were drawn up along the range of buildings, the remains of which are seen on the right and 
left of the picture. The most distant building was the officers' quarters. A wooden piazza, 
or sort of balcony, extended along the second story, and was reached from the ground by a 
flight of stairs at the left end. The first door in the second story, on the left, was the en- 
trance to Delaplace's apartment. It was up those rickety steps, with young Beman at his 
side, that Colonel Allen ascended ; and at that door he thundered with his sword-hilt, con- 
fronted the astonished captain, and demanded his surrender. Between the ruined walls on 
the extreme left is seen Mount Defiance, and on the right is Mount Hope. The distant wall 
in the direction of Mount Hope is a part of the ramparts or out-works, and the woods be- 
yond it mark the location of the remains of the " French lines," the mounds and ditches of 
which are still very conspicuous. 

Near the southeastern angle of the range of barracks is the bakery ; it is an under-ground 
arched room, and was beneath the glacis, perfectly 
bomb-proof, and protected from all danger from with- 
out. This room is very well preserved, as the annexed 
sketch of it testifies ; but the entrance steps are much 
broken, and the passage is so filled with rubbish that a 
descent into it is difficult. It is about twelve feet wide 
and thirty long. On the right is a window, and at the 
end were a fire-place and chimney, now in ruins. On 
either side of the fire-place are the ovens, ten feet deep. 
We had no light to explore them, but they seemed to 
be in good condition. This bakery and the ovens are „, „ 

*= _ J I HE BaKEBV. 

the best-preserved portions of the fortress. For more 

than half a century the walls of the fort have been common spoil for all who chose to avail 
themselves of such a convenient quarry ; and the proximity of the lake afibrds rare facility 
for builders to carry off the plunder. The guide informed me that sixty-four years ago he 
assisted in the labor of loading a vessel with bricks and stones taken from the fort, to build 
an earthen-ware factory on Missisqui Bay, the eastern fork of the lower end of Lake Cham- 
plain. Year after year the ruins thus dwindle, and, unless government shall prohibit the 
robbery, this venerable landmark of history will soon have no abiding-place among us. The 
foundation is almost a bare rock, earthed sufficient to give sustenance to muUens, rag- weed, 
and stinted grass only, so that the plowshare can have no effect ; but desecrating avarice, 
with its wicked broom, may sweep the bare rock still barer, for the site is a glorious one for 
a summer hotel for invalids. I shall, doubtless, receive posthumous laudation for this sug- 
gestion from the money-getter who here shall erect the colonnade, sell cooked fish and fla- 
vored ices, and coin wealth by the magic of the fiddle-string. 

On the point of the promontory, just above the steam-boat landing, are the remains of 
the "Grenadiers' Battery," a strong redoubt built of earth and stone. It was constructed 
by the French, and enlarged by the English. It commanded the narrow part of the lake, 
between that point and Mount Independence, and covered the bridge, which was made by 
the Americans, extending across to the latter eminence. The bridge was supported by 




^ boluabU 0toniar& faJork. 



HISTORY 

OP 

SPAIISH LITERATUEE. 

WITH CRITICISMS ON PARTICULAR WORKS, AND BIOGRAPHICAL 
NOTICES OP PROMINENT WRITERS. 

BY GEORGE TICKNOR, ESQ. 

3 VOLS. 8vo, MUSLIN, f 6 00 ; sheep, $6 75 ; half calf, S7 50. 



vs><^/^^^^^w>w- 



It is a contribution to the literature of the world of the highest value. It comprehends all the informa- 
tion that exists in the numerous treatises that have heretofore been published, lucidly arranged, and its 
various parts presented with a detail proportioned to their comparative importance. The style is digni 
Bed and flowing, enriched with varied learning, and fashioned with faultless taste. The work will be 
classed with Prescott's great histories, and is a production of which Americans may justly be proud. It 
is brought out in the best style, and in general appearance is equal to the costliest productions of the En- 
glish press. — Journal of Commerce. 

* * * In summing up upon its merits, we have only to say that it is a book richly deserving the confi- 
dence of the literary public. It is stamped with the impress of careful and conscientious preparation. 
There are no indications of hurried getting up. Mr. Ticknor has had the rare virtue of literary patience, 
the want of which sends so many half-fledged books fluttering into print, that either fall to the ground 
by mere force of gravity, or are shot on the wing by the critical sportsman. He has gone on, year after 
year, adding to his stores of learning, and laying more deeply the foundation of his literary structure, and 
thus his work has the mellow flavor of fruit that has ripened on the bough. He had learned the extent 
and capacities of his subject before he began to write, and was not obliged to vary his scale of proportion 
as the work went on. — Christian Examiner. 

He has brought to the accomplishment of his task a wide acquaintance with general literature, a sin- 
gular degree of industry, a refined and correct taste, a spirit of cautious, terfiperate, though by no means 
ungenial criticism, a quick sensibility to the beautiful in Sentiment or form, a thorough acquaintance with 
his subject in its most minute and delicate details, and the power of flowing, graceful, and transparent 
composition. His historical style is, indeed, admirable— lively, energetic, cordial, free from monotony and 
commonplace, moving with the ease of a limpid stream, and, without being at any time overloaded, em- 
bellished with the rich and tasteful ornaments appropriate to literary disquisition. Nor is he wanting in 
poetical talents of more than ordinary excellence. The frequent translations from the old Spanish ballads 
and other pieces which are interspersed throughout these volumes show an exquisite skill in versification! 
and a nice and harmonious use of poetical language. — New York Tribune. 

Mr. Ticknor's book micst be translated into German and Castilian, and become the standard work on 
Spanish literature, not only for those who speak our own tongue, but for the Spaniards themselves. — North 
American Review. 

It is the production of one of the most thorough and accomplished scholars in America, 'and is destined 
to take rank with the elegant and leaaned works of the historian Prescott. — New York Mirror. 

This work is characterized by profound thought, by immense research, and by an uncommonly graceful 
and classical style. It conducts the English student into a field in which hitherto he has been little at 
home, and reveals literary treasures, of the very existence of which we in this country at least had no 
knowledge. — Albany Argus. 

The public are greatly indebted to Mr. Ticknor for these valuable fruits of his learned and laborious re- 
searches. The work has cost immense labor, and is characterized by purity and beauty of stj'le, critical 
taste, and sound judgment. It will do our country credit abroad, and must take a conspicuous place in 
our permanent literature. — Newark Daily Advertiser. 



I 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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FIELD-BOOK OF THE REVOLUTION. | 



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This elegant work, now in course of publication, and issued seini-rnonthly, will be completed 
in about twenty numbers, containing forty-eight large octavo pages each, at twenty-five cents 
a number. It is a pictorial and descriptive record of a journey, recently performed, to all the 
Till' most important historical localities of the American Revolution. The plan is unique and at- 
tractive, embraciug the characteristics of a hook of travel and a history. 

The author has visited the places described and illustrated, and sketched the natural scenery , 
relics of the past, such as head-quarters of officers still standing, interior \'iews of remarkable 
buildings, and remains of Ibrtifications ; many interesting relics preserved in historical societies 
aud elsewhere ; and every thing of interest which fell in his way connected, directly or indj^rectly, 
with the events in question. These are all portrayed and described as he found them. In ad- 
dition to these sketches are given plans of all the battles, exhibiting the relative positions of the 
opposing troops in action ; portraits of persons, American and foreign, who were distinguished <if 
actors ill those scenes, as well as of individuals still living who were engaged in the war ; fac' 
similes of autograph names, medals, and documents; plans of Ibrtifications, &CC. 

He has gathered up details of local events from the lips of those who were participants there 
. , in, or from their children, and in many ways has rescued from utter oblivion much which, in a '•f 
\) lew years, A\'ould have been irrecoverably lost. To obtain materials for his work, the author 1^ 
I'f has traveled more than eight thousand miles, in the old Thirteen States and Canada, and made ('.> 
i.S mure than four hundred original drawings. [f^ 

'7 The incidents of his journey, descriptions of the scenery, present appearance of interesting lo- 
, r calities, sketches of character, and other materials which make up an attractive book of travel, 
h are mingled with the graver details of history. The localities of the Revolution are thus made 
JY ])erfectly lamiliar to the present generation, and the history is rendered far more intelligible. The 
\i past and the present are so thoroughly interwoven, that the reader seems to be walking arm 
|i iu arm with the actors in the scenes recorded. The biographical sketches of every distinguish- 
Ijii' ed character connected with the events ol' the war, given in foot notes, will form an interesting 
f^ Ibature in the work. Portraits of the SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDE- 
PENDENCE, beautifully grouped, will be given, with fac-similes of the signatures of each. 

The Engravings, about six hundred in number, are not mere fancy sketches, but spirited 
illustrations of fact. The author went out to rescue frern oblivion the remaining relics of the Rev- 
olution so rapidly passing away, and just as he found them so has he truthl'uUy delineated them. 
The sketches have all been engraved under the immediate supervision of the author, and great Vji 
care has been bestowed to insure accuracy. The whole work will be brought out, in typograph- fjl, 
ical beauty, equal to any thing of the kind ever printed in this country. 
The following are the illustrations in the third number : 

1. ^'iew from the top of Mount Defiance. — 2. Gen. St. Clair. — 3. Site of Fort Anne. 
Major Israel Putnam in British Uiiifbrm. — 5. Battle Ground near Fort Anne. — 6. View at 
Putnam's Rock on Lake Champlain. — 7. The Battle Ground of Hubbardton. — 8. Plan of the 
Engagement. — 9. Grave-stone on Mount Independence. — 10. View i'rom Sholes's Landing. — 
11. Initial Letter. — 12. Chimney-Point Landing. — 13. Western Line of Barracks and Plan 
of Crown Point Fort. — 14. View of Crown Point. — 15. Inscribed Stones. — 16. The Well in 
the Fort. — 17. A Caricature. — 18. Split Ptock. — 19. Burgoyne addressing the Indians. — 20. 
Tomb of Ethan Allen. — 21. Scene of Arnold's Naval Battle on Lake Champlain. — 22. Plan 
of the First Battle. — 23. Plan of the Second Battle. — 24. Isle Aux Noix. — 23. Military Es- 
tablishment at St. John's. — 2G. Fort at Chambly. — 27. St. John's in 1775. — 28. Lord George 
Germain. — 29. Canadian Farm House. — 30. Canadian Peasant Girl. — 31. Beloeil Mountain. 
—32. Francois Vest.— 33. A Thunderstruck Rock.— 31. A Caleche. 



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